Golden Girl Weasley
by doctoral
Summary: Rose Weasley accepts the fact that things don't normally go as planned, but Merlin, she was not expecting for things to stray this far from her plans for her last year at Hogwarts. Heartbreak, lust, and slutty vengeance are just a few of the things waiting for Hogwarts' Golden Girl Weasley during her last term at the school. (Scorpius x Rose)
1. Chapter 1

**So, this first version of the story really sucked. I've re-read it countless times and I've always wanted to re-write it since I've gotten somewhat better at writing over the past year. **

**I really loved the story, so I kept most of it. I changed some of the dialogue, added some details and in my opinion, made it much more interesting. Well, I hope you enjoy the new version and I also hope it does better than the original. Thanks to all of you whom have favorited/followed/reviewed in the past and thanks to those of you who do so in the future. **

**I appreciate all the support!**

**-Al**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, all. So, I originally wrote this story a year or two ago, and my GOD I was a terrible writer. I know that I still have plenty of room for improvement, but I'm hoping maybe the changes I made make the story more bearable to read and maybe a little more interesting. So I hope you enjoy the updated version of this, and please feel free to drop a review or favorite! **

_I feel though as if I owe you, the audience, a disclaimer. I had never intended for my last year at Hogwarts to be so backwards. My intent was to go to school, play quidditch, make out with my cute boyfriend, and then graduate. It was fairly straightforward, in my opinion. No meddling cousins, no stupid, blond, pasty prats, and especially no heartbreak. Ah, well, I suppose things don't normally go as planned, do they? Mum never planned on marrying dad, Uncle Harry certainly never planned on two thirds of his kids being absolute lunatics, Albus never planned on being gay- there's a whole list of plans gone wrong in my family. Why should I be exempt?_

_You know, what really started this whole ordeal was my becoming head girl. Mum had lost her mind when the owl swooped in and dropped off the package, Merlin, she was bouncing off the walls. She had wanted to be head girl herself, but since she, Dad and Uncle Harry had missed their seventh year to hunt horcruxes, she never got the opportunity. Suppose she was living vicariously through me. Would you know that I didn't even want to be head girl? It was the last thing I wanted, to be perfectly frank. I had been a prefect already and always had perfect marks- I was tired of being painted as Hogwarts' "Golden Girl Weasley"- an honest to Merlin nickname I had been granted my fourth year by headmistress McGonagall. _

_I'm sure you're tired of my narration by now, yeah? You probably want to hear the actual story I've been going on about this whole time. I'd better get on with it, then. But before I do, I would just like to point out a few things: I am perfectly aware that my behavior was irrational and inappropriate, but I had never been heartbroken before. I implore you, reader, to keep that in mind as you read the following. _

_Now, without further ado, I present to you my very confusing, awkward, lust and vengeance filled seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:_

_..._

"Rose!" Mum shouted from the kitchen, no doubt. "Come down here! I've got the most exciting thing to show you!"

I rolled my eyes as I set my book down. Mum, despite her generally cool head, had a nasty habit of exaggerating when she was excited. I yawned and brushed my bangs out of my eyes as I slid down the banister, hopping off and walking into the kitchen. Mum stood next to the table where Hugo and Dad sat, Hu's face a mask of boredom and Dad's beaming. "Well, what is it?"

I was nearly tackled to the ground as Mum grabbed me into a hug. "Oh, Rosie darling, we are so proud of you!"

I patted her back awkwardly, coughing. "Yeah? Why's that?"

She smiled knowingly at me as she grabbed a package off of the table, a shiny, black box. She held it out to me, nodding in encouragement as I untied the silky cord holding it shut. I took a deep breath as I lifted the top off. It took every ounce of self-restraint to not grimace at the sight before me: that awful, gleaming head girl's badge. It took a commemorative amount of effort to glance up and smile, despite the exasperation I was currently feeling. "It's, well," I said, sighing. "This is certainly a shocking surprise."

Hugo snorted loudly as Dad admonished me. "Surprise? Rosie, there's no surprise there. Straight o's since you were a first year, one of the top quidditch players at Hogwarts and your responsible sense of being? Why, you're a chip off the old block!" He stood and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me tight to his side and wiggling sort of oddly. "Merlin, I'm proud." Meanwhile, Mum was chuckling to herself, earning a glance from Dad. "What?"

"From what I remember during our time at Hogwarts, you never received straight o's. Nor were you ever very responsible, Ronald."

He smiled at her appreciatively. "Ah, my beautiful wife. Always bringing out the best in me, she is." He let me go as he walked to her side, placing his hands on her waist and kissing her nose gently. This time, I did grimace as I took the seat next to Hugo.

"Gross," he muttered.

"The absolute worst," I whispered in response.

Mum glanced over at us over Dad's shoulder, looking ready to scold before the doorbell rang. "Oh! That would your Uncle Harry and company. I've invited them over for a back-to-Hogwarts dinner! And of course to celebrate your marvelous accomplishment!"

Dad grinned, ruffling Hugo's hair. "And our boy's, too. Captain as a fifth year! It's unheard of!"

I looked at him in surprise. "Captain? Hu, that's wonderful news!"

He blushed. "Yeah, I s'pose. You'd better bring it on try outs if you want to stay on the team."

"Why, you little-"

"Hush, no fighting," Mum barked as the door opened and our extended family entered. My hair was suddenly being mussed by my loud and obnoxious cousin, James. "Head girl, eh? I remember my days as head boy. They weren't so bad- not with Heather Burton as my roommate, of course," he said with a wink, earning a clap on the head from Aunt Ginny. He rolled his eyes as he smiled cheekily at Hugo. "Congratulations on captain, as well, Hu. My, the Weasley-Granger clan in a successful bunch this term."

Lily scoffed as she elbowed her eldest brother. "Don't listen to him. It's wonderful news! We couldn't be prouder of you two!"

I forced a smile at her. I still don't know why Lily always insisted on talking as if she were a grown up at age thirteen. "Thanks a million, Lils." As she turned away, Hugo and I exchanged an exasperated look. I glanced up at Albus, the only cousin to not congratulate me. He was staring back with a knowing look in his eyes. He walked up to me and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Bet you're on top of the world right now, aren't you babe?"

I rolled my eyes and stood nudging his shoulder with mine. "Don't be a prat, Al." I moved past him to give both Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny quick hugs. "Thanks for coming."

"Of course, of course. Wouldn't pass up one of your mum's meals. Any idea on whom your roomie is?"

I frown a little. "No, actually. The letter didn't say. Don't they normally tell you?"

Albus shrugged, a slight smirk on his lips and a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "No idea, Rose. Never gotten a letter naming me head before."

Harry smiled and ruffled my hair. Who knew what the Potter's strange aesthetic towards messing up my hair stemmed from. "Well, whomever it is I'm sure you'll end up bossing around, yeah?" He winked in Dad's direction. "Just like your mum you are."

Mum glowered at him, crossing her arms. "Harry Potter. I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

Aunt Ginny rolled her eyes, linking her arm through Mum's. "Come on, Hermione. I'll help you finish up supper. Lily, dear, come along and help, too."

The three of them bounded into the kitchen as Dad led Harry upstairs to the study, presumably to tell him some new product Uncle George invented for their store. Hugo was being pestered by James, who was apparently still on the subject of how a mere fifth year got to be captain of the quidditch team. I glanced over at Al, who shrugged and stood. I smiled at him as we walked up to my room; he immediately flung himself onto my bed, letting his head hang off the edge. His hand snaked under the pillow and before I could stop him, he pulled out the stack of letters from my boyfriend, Ben. "Merlin, Rose, you sleep with these under your pillow?"

I blushed scarlet as I snatched them from him. "I miss him. We haven't been able to see each other much this summer, since his family's been away in Spain."

He grimaced. "Wonderful. I suppose that means we can all witness a disgusting meet-and-greet make out session on the train tomorrow."

"Oh, shut up Al. Just because you don't like him doesn't mean I can't appreciate his marvelous talents."

"Ugh, what an awful image. He's such a prat—what do you even see in him?"

"Albus, don't do this again. He is a genuinely good guy, I promise. He just takes some getting used to."

He rolled his eyes. "Sure."

"Is there something you want to tell me?" I asked with my eyes narrowed considerably.

He looked up at me, his eyes soft. "Just a stupid rumor going around."

I waited a few moments for him to continue, and when he didn't I looked at him questioningly, my brows raised to my hair line. "And what would that rumor be?"

He sighed and sat up. "I don't feel like stirring the pot any. I don't even know if it's true; Max- the one from Hufflepuff I was sort of seeing over the summer, you know him- mentioned something to me in passing. But of course you can count on me to let you know if it gets serious."

"You truly are my best friend, Albus Potter." I murmured as I pressed a wet kiss on his cheek.

He snorted as he rubbed his face with his sleeve. "What an honor."

...

After dinner had been served, I remained sitting at the table, staring glumly at the stupid badge I held in my hands. They had gone so far to have a toast in my honor, Mum and Dad exclaiming just how proud they were of all the work I had put in during my years at Hogwarts. I was thoroughly fed up. I placed the badge back into its case, dropping my head on the table. Sounds of laughter echoed from the next room over, where my family was playing a muggle card game that Uncle Harry and Mum used to play as kids.

The chair next to me slid out and I tiled my head slightly to identify my company. "Rosie," Uncle Harry greeted.

"Hello," I mumbled.

"What's wrong? For a party in your honor, you seem pretty down."

I sighed and sat up. "Uncle Harry, do you know what it's like to have everyone expecting a lot from you? Even if you never asked for any of their praise?"

He chuckled. "A bit, yeah. Why?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I'm smart like Mum and a good keeper like Dad and all, but sometimes I feel like everyone expects me to be so... perfect all the time. I just wanted my last year at Hogwarts to be normal, but now I've gone and become Head Girl. I just- I wish I could be Rose for once instead of Rosie Weasley, daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley and niece to the great Harry Potter, you know? For once I just want to be mean to someone, or to get an incomplete on an assignment or skip class. I just hate being Hogwarts 'Golden Girl Weasley.'"

"Oh, Rosie. I know exactly where you're coming from. It's hard when you do something well and suddenly, everyone expects you to keep performing to their standards. You studied, and your practiced quidditch, and you got good. Really good, actually. People saw that and kept raising the bar, expecting you to meet it- and why shouldn't they? You had proven yourself before. What makes now so different?" He sighs and adjusts his glasses, looking at me out of the corner of his eyes. "I got the same thing growing up, too. There's not much choice, honestly. You can choose to not rise up to their expectations, and disappoint people- but honestly, who cares? It's your life—or you stick it out and continue allowing people to be impressed by you until you can go on to secondary and become who you want to be and do what you want to do. I know it's not a very appealing choice, but that's the unfortunate price tag attached to being decent. You give people standards."

I scoffed. "Fantastic." My shoulders slumped over and I glanced over at him glumly. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Uncle Harry. I think I'll just stick it out, like you said. Then I can intern at St. Mungo's and become a healer like I've always wanted."

He grinned and ruffled my hair, to my annoyance. "Good luck, Rose. It'll work out in the end. I promise."

...

I woke up the next morning at the ungodly hour at six in order to shower and get ready to depart—for the last time ever—to Hogwarts. Dad helped me lug my trunk out to the car, Hugo's already packed. He sat in the back seat, fast asleep. I rolled my eyes as I slid in next to him, leaning my head back against the headrest and allowing my eyes to slip closed as well. In what seemed like no time at all, the car rolled to a stop and Mum was shaking Hu and I awake, asking us to please help our father with the trunks. I yawned hugely as I placed my trunk on the cart, gently placing my cat carrier atop of that. Poor Henrietta had been hiding the entire summer with Hugo's damned owl fluttering around the house all of the time and terrifying her. I stuck my finger into the cage and rubbed her head affectionately. "We'll be at Hogwarts soon, darling," I murmured.

We shoved our way through the hustle and bustle of King's Cross as he made our way towards platform 9 ¾. "Go ahead, Hugo. You go first," Mum called. He rolled his shoulders before running towards the pillar, disappearing through the barrier. I followed, stepping out onto the platform and grinning as I was greeted by the chatter of my peers, charms being cast and owl flying about.

Mum and Dad appeared behind us, Dad placing his arm around my shoulder. "Well, let's get you off," he said. "Don't want to be late boarding the train. I'm sure you'll have people to talk to."

We walked up to the train, stopping beside it. They hugged Hugo first, Mum holding him tight to his chest as her eyes filled with tears. I rolled my eyes as I watched her nearly suffocate my baby brother. "Oh, Hugo darling, you're going to make such an amazing captain," she gushed, kissing his nose. Dad patted his shoulder affectionately.

"I'm looking forward to hearing reports of Gryffindor taking the cup this year!"

Hugo chucked nervously and I gave him my best 'I know exactly what you're going through' look of exasperation as both of our parents continued to go on about us.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Weasley's," a snide voice remarked. We all turned, coming face-to-face with the Malfoy's. Draco was staring smugly at Dad whilst Mum and Astoria exchanged glances. Despite what had happened between Draco and my parents at Hogwarts, Mum had apparently gotten over it and forgiven him. She was over the whole family rivalry, as was Mrs. Malfoy. Draco and Dad evidently were not.

"If it isn't the biggest prat in London," Dad retorted. "How are things at the ministry?"

"Oh, they're well, as most things are under my control. I was just stopping by to inform you that our son Scorpius has landed himself the esteemed position of head boy this year. Isn't that great?"

Dad got this horrible, smug look on his face when Draco said that, and I grimaced, preparing myself for the shit-storm about to occur. I looked at Scorpius who looked just as exasperated as I felt. The boy was still an arse though, and I couldn't believe my rotten luck. Malfoy as head boy? Which, of course meant that I would be sharing a dorm with him for an entire year. It was no secret that Scorpius, while not as horrible as his once-racist father, was still an insufferable dick, whom, although I hate to admit it, had been my biggest competition since day one.

"Why, that _is _great!" Dad exclaimed as he put his arm around me. "And it just so happens that my daughter Rose is head girl."

Scorpius's eyes widened and he looked at me, his face a mask of pure distaste. "You're joking," he muttered.

"I'm afraid it's the truth," I grumbled back.

Mum stepped in front of Dad, smiling in some effort to dissolve the tension. "Aren't we just the proudest pair of parents here?"

Astoria nodded, linking her arm through Draco's. "Yes, how exciting! It's marvelous that our children have achieved this! Isn't it, Draco, dear?"

He nodded, his mouth upturned into a smug smile. "Yes, well, I have to admit that I'm certainly the proudest father on this damned platform."

"Like hell," Dad sputtered. "Hugo was named as Gryffindor's captain, as well. I can't remember, is Scorpius Slytherin's?"

"Ronald, _please_," Mum hissed.

Draco had opened his mouth to retort when he was interrupted by lovely and wonderful Al sauntering up. He smiled politely at the Malfoys. "Hello, Scorpius. Good summer, mate?" He looked up to Draco and Astoria and bowed his head slightly, extending his hand. "Albus Potter. I'm in Slytherin with Scorpius. We were roommates, before he went and got himself selected as head boy."

Draco sniffed as Astoria shook Albus's hand enthusiastically. "I never thought I'd see a Potter in Slytherin."

Albus shrugged. "Well, I suppose I've always been the black sheep of the family. Although, my younger cousin Louis is in Ravenclaw, and one of my older cousins was in Hufflepuff."

"How quaint," Draco replied as he begrudgingly placed his hand in Albus's, giving it one, curt shake.

The train whistled loudly and Mum patted my head. "You all had better board then." She hugged both Hugo and I tightly, placing kisses on our foreheads before hugging Albus, as well. She smiled kindly at Scorpius. "Have a good term, children! I'll see you over Christmas!"

Dad hugged us, as well. "Now, don't get yourself into trouble. And make sure you get that team of yours whipped into shape, Hu!"

I rolled my eyes as we all boarded the train, waving at my parents before Hugo, Albus and I walked to our usual cabin. Malfoy grabbed my elbow. "Do try to be on time to the prefect orientation, Weasley." He turned on his heel and walked off.

"Ugh. What a prat," Hugo muttered at his retreating form.

...

Scorpius and I stood relatively distanced from one another in a compartment full of prefects, old and new alike. "Weasley has your schedules," he said, "so if you think you'll need them I'd suggest you come get them before she wanders off."

I scoffed and glared at him. "Of course they'll need them." I sighed and looked back at the sea of faces before me. "Sorry about him, guys. Any questions you have feel free to ask. Although you may prefer to ask me, since Malfoy is incapable of answering anything without injecting it full of sarcasm."

"Er, Rose?" a short girl with brown hair called out. I think her name was Elise, and she was in Ravenclaw.

I nodded at her. "Yes?"

"I ask you this at the risk of you or Malfoy killing me, but I have to know. You two aren't going to spend the entire term arguing, are you? Because I really don't want to have to attend a bunch of meetings lead by two people who can't stand each other." There was a murmur of agreement amongst the other prefects, and I frowned a little. I knew that we bickered often, and that we often shared snide comments in class, but Merlin, I had no idea it was such an issue.

"I'm sure the two of us will work something out," I responded.

Scorpius was shrugging. "And if not, McGonagall will just replace us. So really, you prats have nothing to worry about."

I groaned. "Can't you at least act decent for once?" I hissed at him before looking back towards to prefects. "Okay, so, uh, I'll just shout your last name and you can come get your schedule. Remember that these are just for the train, so some of you may not have a patrol until we actually arrive. We'll have a short meeting right after the feast to pass out real schedules. And uh, good luck guys and here's to a good year."

After I had finished passing out the schedules, Scorpius rolled his eyes as he waved the prefects off. "You know, Weasley, you don't have to treat them like children. I'm sure they can handle themselves."

"How am I treating them like children? I'm just trying to be helpful. I was terrified when I first became a prefect," I shot back.

He merely snorted. "That's because you're incompetent, dear."

"That's not true and you know it! We've had the same marks since first year!"

"Not entirely. My marks have always been higher than yours. I just don't prance around the corridors shoving my grades into everyone's faces."

I could feel the tips of my ears burning as well as my cheeks. "Well- oh, shove off Malfoy," I cried as I brushed past him and back to my carriage, where Al sat with Hugo, Lily, Dominique, Ben and our family friends Lorcan and Lysander.

"Everything okay?" Hugo asked as I entered.

"I fucking hate him," I muttered.

"What? Who?" Dominique asked as she stood and petted my hair.

"Malfoy, that's who! The bastard didn't even give me a chance! I know that we hate each other and that there's probably no chance of us ever being friends, but we still have to work together, you know? Would you know that he called me incompetent? Me? Rose Weasley, incompetent?" I scoffed, crossing my arms. "If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that I'm certainly _not_ incompetent. Why would he even say that?"

Ben sighed and stood next to Dominique, placing his hand on her shoulder before wrapping his arms around my waist. "Because he's an arse, Rose. Malfoy sucks—it's a known fact. Don't let him get to you. You're going to make a great head girl, even with _him_ as a partner, okay?"

I nodded, a small smile creeping over my face. I stretched up to place a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks, Ben. Merlin, I don't know what I'd do without you." Albus ruined that semi-sweet moment by snorting loudly. He shook his head before standing up and exiting the carriage, slamming the door shut behind him, muttering something unintelligible about the loo. "What's up with him?"

Dom merely shrugged, sitting down and glancing out the window, biting her lip. "Maybe he didn't get enough sleep last night."

"Maybe I should go after him," I murmured, frowning.

"No!" Ben exclaimed. I glanced at him quizzically and he smiled sheepishly. "I mean, he's obviously not in a talking mood. Don't worry about it, Rosie. You of all people know how he is when he's mad."

"Yes, but he also usually says why." I looked to Lily, who looked just as confused as I was. "Has he mentioned anything to you?"

"Uh-uh," she mumbled. "He was fine up until then."

Of course, that statement only made me even more concerned. "You don't think he's angry with me?"

Both Ben and Dominique were quick to admonish that thought. Ben sat down beside her, pulling me down, as well. "Oh, Rosie! How could he be? You've done nothing wrong."

Ben nodded in agreement as he placed a soft kiss on my forehead. I smiled and sighed, leaning into him. I was completely in love with him. I moved to kiss his lips, shocked when he turned away, nodding in our company's direction. "We shouldn't do that in front of others."

I nodded lethargically, despite the confusion I felt. Since when did Ben have a problem with PDA? I frowned and glanced up at Hugo, trying to diffuse the awkwardness that had settled over the carriage. "So, any ideas for a team roster?"

He scoffed. "As if I'd tell you. That happens to be classified."

I laughed. "Ha. Well, we know for sure who the keeper will be, right?"

"For all you know, some new really talented people may be trying out this year," he responded.

Ben grinned. "But you wouldn't pick them over your favorite team members, would you? You would never replace the best seeker since your Uncle Harry graduated."

Hugo rolled eyes. "Favoritism has no role in the game of quidditch, my friend. This year, Gryffindor's going to dominate, and all of the weak links will be cut down." Ben and I stared at him in astonishment before he broke out into a grin. "I'm kidding. Sort of, I mean. You really shouldn't expect any favoritism."

Ben huffed. "Whatever you say, captain. Although I will agree with you that Gryffindor's going to dominate this year."

Hugo nodded. "We'd better, else I won't hear the end of it."

I raised my brow at him. "Even if we do, you still wouldn't hear the end of it. It'll just be a hell of a lot less whiny."

He laughed. "Dad's either pleased or pissed, there really is no in-between."

Ben rolled his eyes. "I swear, all you two do is talk about your father and quidditch."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "You like quidditch though."

"True, but I never said anything about your dad," he said, winking.

"At least you like me," I teased, pecking his cheek. He didn't tease back, instead offering me a small smile before glancing away from me. I frowned again, exchanging a look with Hugo who merely shrugged. Before long, we were only fifteen minutes from Hogwarts and I was expected to help Scorpius get the first years to the sorting ceremony. I stood and waved. "Well, I had better get going. I'll see you all at the feast." I exited the cabin and ran into someone. "Oh, gees, sorry." I glanced up and smiled. "Albus!"

He nodded at me. "Rosie," he greeted as he continued forward.

I reached out and grabbed his arm. "Hey," I said. "Walk with me?"

He shrugged, falling into step beside me. "What's up?"

"You're not mad at me, are you? I know that you are Scorpius are friends and I'm sorry if what I said offended you-"

"Rose, I'm not angry with you." He sighed, squeezing his eyes shut. "I'm just not too happy with Ben is all."

I rolled my eyes. "Al, he's not as bad as you think-"

"I know you think that Rosie, but he really is. I, uh, I've got to go get my stuff together. Besides, Scorp is waiting for you like, four feet away. And he looks pissed. So, go. I'll see you later, okay?"

I nodded, narrowing my eyes at him. "Sure. Make sure you come by and see my room later."

"Yeah, yeah." He reached up and kissed my cheek before darting away. I turned and regarded Scorpius coldly.

"So how do you want to split them up?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Figured Golden Girl Weasley would have some fancy idea."

I huffed loudly, crossing my arms. "I'll take girls, you take boys."

"But what if there's an uneven ratio of boys to girls?"

"For fuck's sake, Malfoy. We're taking them to wait outside of the Great Hall to meet Longbottom. I don't think the ratio of boys to girls really matters."

He threw up his hands. "Fine," he mused. "But when one of us is stuck with a plethora of first years, remember it's your fault, Weasley."

"Yes, because everything's my fault," I said, rolling my eyes. "Can we please just get this over with? I want to go to bed."

"I might just decided to take a detour on the way to the great hall now," he said. "Keep you up an extra hour."

I groaned loudly. "You are so immature."

...

The sorting took much longer than usual, in my opinion, and we were finally able to eat, to the absolute euphoria of my starving stomach. We dug in, me specifically moaning as I ate the absolutely wonderful food presented. I caught up with my friends, Jane and Olive who were very sympathetic towards my having to share a room with Malfoy. After nearly an hour of fine dining, McGonagall dismissed the student body. Prefects were given the responsibility of escorting the first years to their dorms while Malfoy and I were called in to have a discussion with McGonagall.

She invited us into her office, although I think the word 'invite' implies some sort of ability to decline. This, despite what she may claim, was most definitely an order. Malfoy and I were seated in plush chairs across the desk from her, and she sat looking over spectacles for nearly a minute before Malfoy cleared his throat. "Professor, what exactly is this about?"

"I was getting to that, Mr. Malfoy." She glowered at him, causing his face to pale even more, as if that were possible, before glancing at me, as if daring me to add to his outburst. When I said nothing, she harrumphed. "As I was saying," she began, and I could swear that I heard Malfoy mumble that she hadn't been saying anything, "you two have a bit of a history together. You two are both top of your class and very talented quidditch players. You're both stellar students and can be quite kind when you're not around each other, so in discussing whom I should choose for the roles of head boy and head girl, votes were nearly unanimous in favor of you two. However, one professor voiced that they feared that due to your standing rivalry, you would be unable to cooperate and do your job without arguing. Seeing as how you two are quite frequently bickering, I felt that this concern was justified. She stopped talking to take a sip of her tea.

"Minerva," a voice cried out. We all three glanced up at the portrait of Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts. "That wouldn't happen to be Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy?"

"It is," she replied.

He almost smiled. "A Weasley and a Malfoy, interesting. I can't wait to see if the two of them might patch up that hatred between their families."

Malfoy scoffed. "Not likely," he muttered.

I could only glare at him before another voice chimed in. "Scorpius," he droned. "Draco's boy. Tell me, are you at all interested in the dark arts?"

We glanced around until our eyes settled on the portrait of Severus Snape. Malfoy shook his head. "Not particularly, no."

Snape didn't look very convinced. "Stay away from them, boy. They ruined your father and your grandfather," he muttered. His gaze shifted from Malfoy to me. "Grangers daughter?"

I nodded. "Ron Weasley, too."

He rolled his eyes. "I never thought much of either of your parents. Granger was an incessant know-it-all and Weasley was a fumbling fool."

I felt my face heating up. "I- well I heard that you were a traitorous prat!"

Dumbledore's portrait began to chuckle at this as Snape merely brooded, looking down his nose at me. "Fire in her, just like her mother." McGonagall cleared her throat, at which Dumbledore offered a slight bow. "So sorry, Minerva. Please, go on."

She sighed curtly before looking back at Malfoy and I. "Both of you are honorable students, therefore I am expecting you two to see past this rivalry of yours to work together. If not, I'll have no choice but to replace the two of you, am I understood?"

I nodded, crossing my arms and flipping my hair over my shoulder. "Yes, professor."

She looked to Scorpius. "Mr. Malfoy," she said sternly.

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. I'll attempt to work with Weasley."

I groaned. "Sure you don't want to just replace me now, professor? I'm more than happy to just trade the stupid badge in now and not even have to worry about it. I'm sure my cousin Dominique would be qualified-"

"Ms. Weasley, you were chosen for a reason. I will not have you handing in your badge. Now off to bed, the both of you."

...

Scorpius and I entered our little suite and I was pleasantly surprised at the quaintness of it. "Oh, it's adorable," I gushed. The common room, while small and paling in comparison to the one in Gryffindor, was decorated with a plush couch, a fireplace and two large, leather armchairs as well as a bookshelf. A small coffee table was placed in front of the sofa. Adjourned to the common room there was a small kitchen area with a dining room table, cabinets stuffed with biscuits and chocolates as well as other things and two enchanted goblets. Down the hall there was a bathroom, complete with a huge bath, much more impressive than the prefects bathroom and even further down the hall were two bedrooms. I opened the door to the further one back and saw that it was decorated in Gryffindor colors. "Must be mine," I called, taking in the room. There was a large four-poster bed, a dresser, a mirror and a vanity table. Very nice.

Scorpius scoffed. "I wouldn't be so sure, Weasley. Guessing by that vanity table it's probably mine. I do need somewhere to apply my foundation in the morning."

I rolled my eyes, something I had been prompted to do quite frequently as of late. "Your jokes are idiotic, Malfoy."

He snorted. "At least I have a sense of humor."

I really, truly, honest to Merlin, hated that boy. "Goodnight," I said sternly before shutting my door. I sighed and flopped myself onto the bed. It really was comfortable. I turned over and nuzzled into the pillow, pulling the blankets to my neck before allowing my eyes to slip closed.

...

"Hey, Weasley." Someone was shaking me, and it wasn't pleasant. I turned over, away from the shaking and buried my face in the pillow. "For fuck's sake," the voice groaned. "Get up. You've got like forty minutes to get ready and get to the great hall to assist the first years in finding their classes."

My eyes snapped open and I sat up abruptly. Scorpius stood by my bed, his arms crossed and an annoyed expression on his face. "Finally. You sound like a pig when you sleep, you know. I could barely hear my own voice over your snoring."

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. "Can it, Malfoy."

He snorted. "Is that the thanks I get for waking you up when you very obviously weren't doing it yourself?"

I stopped on my way to the dresser and turned to face him. "What, you did a favor for me?"

He sputtered. "It wasn't out of the goodness of my heart, Weasley. I just- I didn't feel like getting chewed out by McGonagall if you were late. Could you please try to hurry? I want to eat before all the first years get there."

"Go by yourself?" I suggested, raising a brow.

"What? No, then I'd have to sit there alone."

"And you prefer sitting with me?"

"Stop asking stupid questions and get ready, Weasley. You're such a pest sometimes, I don't know why I bother."

I scoffed as he stormed out of my room. "Very mature, Malfoy! Throw a tantrum!" I shook my head as I gathered my clothes for the day and made my way to the bathroom. I bathed quickly and threw on my neatly ironed blouse, tucking it in to my crisp skirt. I pulled on my signature red-and-gold striped socks that went up to my knee and laced my almost knee-high boots on. I pulled my sweater on over my blouse and walked back to my room, glancing in the vanity. Thankfully, I looked somewhat decent so all I did was apply some light mascara before flinging my tie around my neck and grabbing my bag, which was nearly twenty pounds with all of the books I had shoved in it.

Malfoy was waiting for me in the common room. He was lounging on the couch, his feet kicked up on the table. "Don't put your feet on the table, Malfoy."

He stuck his tongue out at me. "What are you, my mother?"

"Might as well be," I muttered under my breath as I tied my tie. "Ready?"

"Yes, _Weasley_. I've been ready for an hour."

"You know, you could've gone without me."

"What would McGonagall have said?"

"Oh, I don't know. 'Darn that Rose Weasley and her inability to wake up in the morning'?"

He glanced at me. "You're an ugly sleeper, you know that? You snore really loudly and your mouth hangs open."

I glowered at him. "Did you decide to wait for me just so you could insult me?"

He shrugged. "I have my hobbies."

"You're unbelievable, you know."

"Unbelievably charming, maybe."

"Ungh!" I cried. "You are _such_ an arse! I don't know how Al stands you."

"Maybe because Al has a mind of his own and doesn't let your family's blatant distaste for mine guide him."

"Oh, and you don't let yours guide you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Obviously not," he muttered. "I became friends with Albus, didn't I?"

"Yes, well you've tormented me since we were first years!"

He stopped walking very abruptly and looked at me hard. "Let me get one thing straight, Weasley. I don't dislike you because of some stupid family rivalry. I don't dislike you because you're my competition for literally everything I do. I don't even dislike you because you're a suck-up. I dislike you because you think you're perfect and infallible. And it's disgusting that someone could be so infatuated with themselves as you are."

I stiffened. "I don't think I'm perfect," I whispered. Damn him. I don't know how in the first ten consecutive minutes of actual conversation he had managed to press my worst button.

"Sure, Weasley. Can we just get to the great hall? I'm starving."

I fought against the tears pricking at the back of my eyes—honestly, what the hell? Crying because of a stupid comment, Malfoy of all people made—and pushed my shoulders back, lifting my chin slightly. "I left my, er, potions book back in the room," I muttered.

He slapped his forehead with his hand. "Can't you do anything right?"

I shook my head. "Of course I can, Malfoy. I'm _perfect_, remember? So shove off and go eat breakfast. I'll see you there in a few moments."

"You're mad."

"I'm not either."

He was laughing now. "Is Golden Girl Weasley mad because I called her out on her pretentious attitude?"

I shoved him, hard. "Don't call me that, Malfoy!"

He stumbled back a few feet, dropping his books and staring at me in shock. "Wow, Weasley. I never pinned you as very aggressive off the pitch."

I shook my head, dropping to my knees to gather his things. "Merlin, I'm sorry, Scorpius. I didn't mean to shove you." I stood and shoved the books into his arms. "Let's just get this over with so I can get away from you."

...

Time had passed since that incident, and both Scorpius and I had moved on. We had even managed to fall into some sort of routine. Despite my frustration at it, he still insisted on waking me up every morning, insulting me in some manner, and then rushing me out of the door. I couldn't wrap my head around his inability to just walk himself to damned great hall—or anywhere, really—but nonetheless, I was tasked with the chore of walking with him to breakfast. We then proceeded to go our separate ways to class, although by some serious mishap of fate, we shared more lessons than not.

We never spoke in any of them, each clinging to our own friends. Then it was lunch, then more lessons, then usually some head business. The evenings we spent apart, thankfully. In my case, I usually spent them studying or shagging with Ben, unless he was in his weird moods that made him all awkward and fussy, and not allowing any physical contact. Albus still went on mercilessly about him and Scorpius had the gall to ask that I not bring him over anymore, because "if he has the decency to shag girls other places than our shared dorm, I should exercise that same control."

At least my classes weren't hard.

And then of course Gryffindor quidditch tryouts were coming up rather soon and although Ben and I were already on the team, Hugo insisted we be at tryouts to help him choose the new team. Tryouts went smoothly thanks to Hugo's impeccable leadership skills, and Dom and Al had even come to show their support. For some odd reason I couldn't place, Albus refused to acknowledge her and they sat with a noticeable amount of distance between them.

Hugo, Ben and I landed our brooms in the center of the pitch as the group of students trying out drifted to the locker rooms to change. Hugo had a brilliant smile on his face. "I think we're going to do really, really well this year."

I nodded my agreement. "Especially with such a great captain," I said. "We're going to go a long way, little brother."

Ben ruffled his hair. "I'll admit it, I was a little worried when they made a fifth year captain this year instead of me, but you're definitely turning out to be pretty alright at it." Dom jogged over and grabbed Ben in a tight hug, gushing over how well he did before embracing Hugo and I, as well. I didn't know why the fuck she felt the need to hug Ben so much longer than us, but I decided to worry about that later. I excused myself from the conversation, giving both Ben and Hugo kisses on the cheek and embracing Dom before heading back to my dorm.

Once inside, I was greeted by Scorpius and Al writing some kind of essay in the common room. "Al?" He glanced up. "How'd you get here so quickly?"

He shrugged. "I left a lot earlier than Dom did. She was annoying."

I leaned against the door frame. "I noticed you distancing yourself from her."

Al looked back down at his essay and shrugged. "She's been annoying lately."

I frowned, but shrugged it off. "Whatcha working on?"

"Charms," Scorpius replied curtly.

I smacked my forehead with the palm of my hand. When Al and Scorpius looked at me quizzically, I sighed. "I left my bag in the locker room."

"Better get it before they lock it up for the night," Al said.

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah." I left the room and jogged back down to the quidditch pitch. I slowed to a walk and threw open the door to the locker room. The shower was running, despite the fact that tryouts had ended over forty minutes ago. I walked further into the locker room and saw my bag resting on a bench, straight across from the showers.

I sighed. "Hey, whoever's in there, it's me, Rose, and I'm just coming to get my bag."

"Rose?" a familiar voice responded.

"Ben? What are you still doing here?" I asked, stepping into the shower area. The sight I saw nearly made me faint. Ben was in the shower, lathered up and very hard, might I add, next to my very flushed and equally as lathered cousin, Dom.

"Rose-" he started, but I cut him off.

"Don't say anything," I said coolly. I reached down and grabbed my bag, slinging it over my shoulders. I turned and began to walk from the room when I heard the water stop and Dom swearing. She caught up to me, wrapped in a towel.

"Rosie, please-"

I huffed loudly, looking at her. "Dom, shut the fuck up." I began to walk away again, this time content that I wasn't being followed. As soon as I was off the pitch, I moved into a dead sprint, my hand pressed firmly against my mouth and my vision blurred by tears. I got to the suite and threw the door open, my tears flowing freely.

"Rose?" Al called, standing. He ran over to me and gripped my shaking shoulders. "Rosie, what's wrong?"

I shook my head. I was crying and shaking so hard I knew I wouldn't be able to form a cohesive sentence. So instead, I settled for collapsing against him and sobbing into his shirt as he led me over to the couch where a very uncomfortable Scorpius sat. I tried to give him an apologetic look, but through my scrunched up face and tears it was probably hard to tell.

"Rosie, you need to calm down," Al murmured, pressing a hand against my cheek. "Tell me what happened."

I took a shuddering breath. "When- when I went back to get my bag someone was showering, and when I got back to the showers I saw it was Ben and- and Dom was in the shower with him." I dropped my head into my hands and cried harder. "My own fucking cousin and the bloody arse I'd been with for over a year."

Al sighed sadly. "I'm sorry you found out this way, Rose. They were supposed to tell you."

"You knew?" I gasped.

Scorpius snorted. "Half of the school knew, Weasley. Someone as sharp as you I'm surprised you didn't find out sooner."

I stood up, my ears and cheeks burning. "And why the fuck didn't either of you think to tell me?"

Scorpius shrugged. "It never came up, and we aren't really friends. I didn't think I owed you anything."

I guess I didn't really expect anything different from Scorpius, but Al was avoiding my gaze. "Al," I whispered, "how could you keep this from me?"

"Ben said that he was going to fix it," he muttered. "He promised me that if I would wait to tell you that he would be honest. I'm sorry I didn't say anything, but I didn't want to upset you. I knew that you would've much preferred him telling you yourself."

I laughed bitterly. "You're right. Too bad he's too big of an arse to own up to anything, ever."

He smiled sadly at me. "Need me to stay?"

I shook my head. "Go get some sleep, Al. Slytherin has tryouts tomorrow, and I know you'll want your rest."

He rolled his eyes, grumbling. "I don't even bloody like quidditch. Mum makes me play."

I smiled a little. "You're such a prat," I said. He kissed me on the cheek and patted Scorpius on the back before leaving.

Scorpius looked at me. "You're not going to start crying again, are you?"

I shook my head, despite the tears stinging in my eyes. I opened my mouth to respond when a frantic knock sounded at the door. Scorpius made his way over, rolling his eyes and muttering something about how my prat of a cousin probably forgot his quill again. When he opened the door, he groaned. "If you're here to cry, too, get out."

"Who is it?" I called.

"It's me, Rosie," a delicate voice replied. I flopped my head back as Dom rounded the corner, standing in front of me. "I know you're probably angry with me-"

"Probably?" I asked, raising a brow. "No, Dom. I am most definitely angry with you."

She nodded, her eyes downcast. "I'm really sorry. It- it just sort of happened."

"Dom, I'm not really in the mood to discuss this with you."

"Rose, will you just listen to me?" she screeched, causing Scorpius to wince and cover his ear closest to her.

I glowered at her, furious. "No, you listen to me. I don't want anything to do with you, nor Ben. You cheated with him on your own cousin, Dom. That's low, even for your standards."

Her head snapped up angrily. "I wouldn't have even done it if you didn't have to be so perfect all of the time!" she cried. There we go again, with the perfect thing.

"What the fuck are you on about?" I replied, exasperated.

"You have everything, Rose. You're beautiful, you're a fantastic keeper, you get amazing marks and everyone loves you! So I thought- well, I thought that if I could get Ben to snog me behind your back that I'd finally have had something over you. But- but then it turned to more and we both sort of developed feelings for each other. I- it isn't my fault, really."

"_What the fuck_?" I shouted. "Are you seriously victimizing yourself? Dom, you cheated with Ben on me. It doesn't matter why you did it, and to be honest I don't give a shit about your reasoning behind it. It's the fact that you did do it that I'm so angry about."

"I just wanted to be better than you!" she sobbed, covering her hands with her face.

For whatever reason, that pushed me over the edge. For the first time in my life, I, Rose Weasley, was about to say something horrible to someone, other than Malfoy, of course. "You're not." She looked up at me in surprise, as did Malfoy.

"What-"

"You're not better than me, and you never will be. I will always be better than you. And you know why? It's not because I'm more athletic, or because your marks will never be nearly as good as mine. It doesn't even have to do with the fact that you're the school slag. No, what makes me better than you is that I would never, _never _stoop so low to hurt someone like you hurt me and ruin a happy relationship in order to be better than someone. Especially if that someone was family. You're selfish, and you really are a slag." I set my jaw before adding the next bit. "And you're not even as pretty as I am. It only makes sense that you're second, maybe even third best to me."

She gasped. "You- how could you say that?"

I merely shrugged, which was somehow amusing to Malfoy, who burst out into laughter. "I never in my life thought I'd ever hear Rose Weasley say what's on her mind."

Dominique sniffed. "Stay out of this, _Malfoy_."

He snorted. "Might I remind you that this is my suite, too. Speaking of that, I want you out."

"How- how dare you! Rose wouldn't let you kick me out, would you Rosie?"

I rolled my eyes. "First of all, quit calling me Rosie. You sort of lost the right to do that after you ruined my relationship. Second, I most certainly _would_ let him kick you out. In fact, I think I'd rather do the honors." I smirked before tilting my head at the door. "Get the fuck out, Dom."

She harrumphed and turned on her heel, shaking her hair dramatically before opening and slamming our door. Malfoy turned to me, his brows raised. "I have to admit, Weasley. You shocked me."

I crossed my arms. "Because I stood up for myself?"

He nodded. "That, and the fact that you actually spoke what was on your mind for once and told her off. I know you're family and all, but I haven't been able to stand her since second year transfiguration with her." He lifted his arms and grabbed his face. "'Professor, I can't touch that toad! What if I get warts?'" he mocked in a high pitched voice. He rolled his eyes. "She's such an idiot. Ben was, too, for the record. I remember last year he literally spent all of defense against the dark arts making 'that's what she said' jokes. You're better off without him, if you ask me."

I sniffled, looking up at him. And before I knew what I was doing, I had thrown my arms around his neck and had buried my face into his shoulder. "Thanks, Scorpius."

He patted my back awkwardly before stepping back. "Don't get me wrong, Weasley. You're still incompetent."

I smiled. "I know."

...

Scorpius woke me up the next morning, and to my surprise he had no insults for once. He merely glanced at the numerous tissues strewn about my bed and the open half-eaten box of chocolates. "Wake up, Rose."

That was the second thing wrong with that situation. He didn't call me Weasley or some other stupid variation of my name. He called me Rose. I glanced at his face and saw that he looked, well, almost like he pitied me.

"Oh no. Stop that right now, Malfoy."

He rolled his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Please don't pity me. I mean, maybe this is for the better. Now I'm not dating Ben anymore, and everyone was so convinced he was such a dick-"

"I don't pity you, Weasley. I stayed up too late because your dumb crying kept me awake. I was simply too tired to make the effort to insult you."

"Whatever. Get out so I can change."

He grimaced. "Gross. I bet you're all flabby."

"Even if I were, I'd still be cuter than you!" I shouted as he left my room.

"That's an irrelevant comparison, seeing as I have a penis and you don't."

I rolled my eyes before breaking out into a grin, causing me to come to an epiphany: Somehow, in the past twenty four hours, I had started to think of Malfoy as a friend. I groaned to myself. This year just got ten times worse. After I had gotten dressed, we walked down to the great hall, passing by a group of third years going on about how excited they were to be able to visit Hogsmeade on Halloween. My eyes widened at the thought of Halloween being just a few days away. Malfoy and I were nearly at the doors to the great hall when I stopped. He looked at me, rolling his eyes. "What now, Weasley?"

"I don't know where I'm going to sit. Obviously I can't sit where I normally do-"

"And why not?" he interrupted.

"Because then I'd have to be around Ben and Dom." Wasn't that obvious?

He shrugged. "Well, yes. But then you'd also be showing them that they don't affect you. Besides, all that stuff you said about being better than Dominique will go to waste if you let her win now. So go and sit by them."

I grinned, despite myself. "Who would've known? Scorpius Malfoy is capable of calling Rose Weasley by her first name and giving advice. This certainly is a game changer."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

I winked at him. "Nothing, Malfoy. Thanks anyway." I could feel him rolling his eyes at me as I stepped into the great hall and made my way over to my ordinary table. I kissed Hugo and Lily on the head to greet them good morning and even offered Dom and Ben, who were sitting unnecessarily close might I add, a cold glare before delving right into a jubilant conversation with my brother and cousin. I could see Ben and Dom sharing uneasy glances and looking at me cautiously, as if I might snap at any moment.

I dropped my spoon into my porridge, causing much of the surrounding area to look our way in shock. "Something you'd like to say to me?"

Dom merely glanced away whilst Ben shrugged. "Is there anything to say?" he asked.

I set my jaw, even though I swear I could feel a chunk of my heart breaking off. "Then could you please stop fucking staring at me? It's rather annoying." I pushed my bowl to the center of the table and grabbed my bag, stomping away from them. I made my way across the hall and plopped down in between Al and Scorpius, who looked at me curiously.

"Weasley," Malfoy said coolly, "whatever happened to the whole not letting them win?"

"They wouldn't stop fucking looking at me," I muttered.

Albus sighed sadly and placed an arm around my shoulder. "Oh, Rosie, don't let them get to you, alright? You're so much better than them, and you know it."

...

Another week passed and although I continued to cry myself to sleep at night, I had no more run-ins with my cheating cousin and ex. That may have had something to do with the fact that Hugo and Al refused to let me walk alone, for fear that Ben would attempt to talk to me. Which is a ridiculous notion really, because if he did I would simply hex him into oblivion and be done with it. At least I think I would have.

On the Friday before Halloween (I remember it well), Al was walking with me to the dungeons on our way to potions, when I was stopped by a cool hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw Dom standing there. "What do you want?"

She sighed. "Look, Rosie, I really am sorry. I- Nothing's going to change the fact that it happened so I was thinking that you might just get over it and we could go back to being friends?"

"Dom, I don't want anything to do with you and Ben. Not a single thing, do you get that? Or should I spell it out for you? Maybe write a children's book, something that you could comprehend?"

She pouted. "I don't get why you feel the need to be so vile. You're losing your friends, you know. All you do is sit in your room or hang out with Albus."

I laughed bitterly. "You know, this whole thing has actually opened my eyes to whom my real friends are. And you and Ben are certainly not on that list, nor are the majority of the prats I used to hang out with."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Really? Then tell me, Rosie. Who makes Golden Girl Weasley's pretentious list of friends?" My face burned at that. She knew how much I hated that name, and I heard Al gasp when she said it and his hand came to rest instinctively on my shoulder.

I took a deep breath and poised in a thoughtful position, my finger tapping my chin. "Well, Hugo and Al, obviously. Lily, Jane, Olive, Lucy, Lorcan and Lysander... Scorpius Malfoy?"

This time she gasped and her normally perfect complexion was splotchy and red. "How- how dare you put Malfoy above your own family?"

"I didn't put him above my family. I put him above you."

She reached out and before I knew it, a loud slap echoed through the hallway and my face stung. My hand fluttered up to my stinging cheek and I glowered at her. Al had his arms practically around me, most likely much to everyone who was now watching the spectacle's surprise. Golden Girl Weasley didn't fight, so why on earth would she need to be held back? They probably expected me to cry or something pathetic.

"Careful what you say, Rosie," she hissed. And with a dramatic flourish of hair she turned on her heel and stomped away.

"Off to shag someone, Dom? Seems like that's all your good for at this school. Maybe the ministry will even open up a prostitution branch, just for you. That way all of the sleaze bag politicians could get some."

She stopped and looked over her shoulder at me. Her eyes were wide and her face was flushed, and I could see the glint of tears, and for one split second, I actually felt bad. Then she said it. "No, I'm off to shag Ben." She flipped her hair and turned again, walking off. It was silent for a few moments and the only thing that filled said silence was the sounding of those fucking whore stilettos she insists on wearing.

I glanced up at the group of students surrounding me, some watching me with smirks plastered on their faces, some staring at me with awe, others looking uncomfortable or even scared, most looking almost as if they were pitying me. I straightened myself up and shoved Al away. "And what the fuck are you prats looking at? Shove off."

...

Later that evening, I sat in the suite on the couch eating a huge bowl of ice cream as I attempted to study for potions. However, all I could really concentrate on was Dom's betrayal. Whether she knew it or not, she had just made an enemy of Rose Weasley. And I was determined to make it known that I was going to stand up for myself. I was not going to let my stupid slag cousin ruin this year, especially when the whole head girl and sharing a suite with Malfoy thing was finally looking up.

I heard the door open and Scorpius shouting some farewell to whomever he got to walk him up here. I will never understand that boys insistence with walking everywhere with someone. He stopped when he saw me and grinned. "So, did Dominique really beat you up in the dungeon?"

I rolled me eyes. "Is that what the rumor mill's churning these days?"

"It's also saying that you accused her of prostitution?"

I grinned. "For once those idiots spread the truth."

His eyes widened. "Woah woah woah. Wait a second there, Weasley. You admittedly called her a prostitute? In front of all those people?"

"Well, yes. But she slapped me first." I couldn't help but revel in his astonishment.

He sat down beside me on the couch. "What prompted that?"

"I, uh, well. I sort of told her that you made Golden Girl Weasley's prestigious friend list over her."

He glanced at me quizzically. "Are we friends, Weasley?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. We walk to classes together and I sit with you at meals and we talk a lot. Might as well be, right?"

"I don't care," he huffed. "Just don't expect me to be nice to you or anything."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Malfoy." I stood up stretching. "I think I'm going to bed-"

"Why _do_ you let people walk all over you, Rose? I mean, I know you stood up to Dom and all but you have to know the things Ben says behind your back, right? About all of the shagging you two did?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"So why do you let them?"

I shrugged. To be honest, it was because if I said something hurtful than my image would be stained, my parents embarrassed and everything I had worked for for wont. Fighting back wasn't worth it. Besides, Rose Weasley was known for her kindness and naivety when it comes to people insulting her, much to my annoyance. "I guess it's never really bothered me before."

He laughed humorlessly. "That's a damned lie if I ever heard one. Thought Golden Girl Weasley didn't lie?"

I swallowed and bit my tongue as tears pricked at the back of my eyes. "Scorpius, don't call me that."

He glanced up at me, surprised and his smile vanished. "Are you okay-"

"Fine, Malfoy," I hissed. "Just don't fucking call me Golden Girl Weasley, okay?"

He nodded and looked at me curiously, his mouth slightly ajar. "Why does it bother you so much?"

"Fuck, Malfoy. It just does. Why does everything have to be twenty questions with you?" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up. I don't know why I was being so difficult or so harsh, especially considering the fact that we had just decided that we were friends.

He rolled his eyes. "Why does everything have to be so dramatic with you?"

I sighed. "I don't mean to be so harsh, you know. It's just with you, I was never expected to be nice. So I guess that you've always been my free space, you know? I didn't have to worry about anyone's opinions of me dropping because I treated Scorpius Malfoy like shit."

His lips twitched, as if he was fighting off a smile. "I thought you didn't open up to anyone but dear Albus?"

I hesitated for a moment before replying. He was absolutely right though. Al was the only person in the whole world who could say he truthfully knew me. "I don't."

"Oh." He looked away, running a hand through his hair.

That situation had somehow gone from playful to extremely awkward in just a few short moments, therefore it was my time to excuse myself from further conversation. "Well, goodnight Malfoy."

"Yeah, yeah. 'Night, Rose."

For some reason I felt butterflies when I heard him say my name, which was definitely a major disaster. Merlin, things were just getting worse for me. I retreated to my room and spent the next few hours playing with makeup and outfit combination, frowning at my inability to get it right. Finally, I gave in and walked to Scorpius's room, hesitating before opening the door and walking to his bedside.

"Get up," I hissed. It was around one in the morning and I was standing in Malfoy's room, dressed like a total skank and covered in makeup.

"Hm?" he mumbled, smacking his lips and turning onto his stomach.

"Malfoy, wake the fuck up," I cried, clapping my hands loudly.

"Ah!" he cried, jolting upright. He glanced around wildly before his look settled on me and his jaw nearly dropped. "_Weasley_?"

"How do I look?"

"Wha- What are you doing?"

"Malfoy, just tell me if I look good or not."

He let his gaze drift over my outfit. I had my blouse unbuttoned so that the peak of my cleavage showed through and I had rolled my skirt up so that it was now mid-thigh. My tie was tied very loosely around my neck and accentuated my cleavage nicely, in my opinion.

"Er, well..." he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Sure, I guess. But you look like a slag," he added, frowning.

"I know. That was the point," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Wait, why are _you_ dressing up like that?"

"I-" I swore inwardly as I felt a blush creep over my features. "I wanted to make Ben jealous."

He scoffed. "What for? Unless you want to get back with him. Which is stupid, Weasley. I will be very disappointed in you if you take him back. More so than I have ever been before, which is saying something. I-"

"Merlin, shut the hell up. I just want to piss him—and Dom, I suppose—off. I was planning on flirting very heavily in front of him, but I figured as long as I still had that whole Golden Girl Weasley image going on it wouldn't be very convincing."

He laughed. "Well, Rose. If you're really trying to screw him over, let me help you make a few adjustments." He rolled out of bed and my heart thundered in my chest when he stood up. He was shirtless and wearing only very tight pants. I took a deep breath and looked back up at his face and tried to ignore the heat rushing to my face. When did Malfoy get so hot?

He reached over and unbuttoned a few more of my buttons and then pulled on my collar, so more of my chest was exposed. He reached for my wrist then and rolled up the sleeves of my blouse that it reached my elbow, then did the same to my other sleeve. He pulled my skirt up just a bit more and undid one of the rolls, so it sat higher on my waist but was still short. Then he reached up loosened my tie before messing up my hair a little.

"There. Now you look like the biggest slut this school has ever seen."

I raised my brow. "How do you know how to make me look so slaggish?"

He shrugged. "I did play the role of Slytherin playboy for a few years. I know what a guy likes. Especially a guy like Ben."

"Well- thanks, Scorpius. I'm going to actually try and sleep now."

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll, uh, just get back to that."

...

The next morning, I waved goodbye to Scorpius when we entered the great hall. It was Halloween and the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and I was also introducing the new Rose Weasley to the school. What a day. I walked boldly to my old table and plopped down beside Hugo, leaning very heavily on my elbows like Malfoy had advice. How he knew more about seduction than I did remains to puzzle me to this day, but I was grateful nonetheless. Hugo was staring at me, his face red and his mouth ajar.

"What?" I asked, innocently.

He spluttered, unable to form a cohesive sentence. "You- ah- your shirt- boobs..."

"Merlin, Hugo. You sound exactly like dad," I snorted. I rolled my eyes and in doing so noticed Ben staring, too. His mouth was slightly ajar, much more concealed than Hugo's look, and he very inconspicuously licked his lips. I pressed my own lips into a hard line and laughed, knowing full well the effect it would have on Ben to see my boobs jiggle like I knew they would.

I saw Ben's face go extremely red as Dom swatted at him, grabbing his cheeks in her face and forcing him to look at her. Then she turned to me and looked straight into my eyes before kissing him firmly on the mouth.

_That bitch._ I never knew one could hate their own family so much, but as I sat there watching my cousin make out with Ben I felt a hatred I had never felt before. She was so going down.

"Woah, dig the new look, Weasley."

I glanced up and saw Tom Snark, a chaser on the Ravenclaw quidditch team standing behind me. I smirked at him, leaning back against the table. "Hey, Tom. What's up?"

He grinned. "Not much, doll. What's up with you?"

I shrugged. "Just, er, hanging. You know." I tried to bite my lip seductively but all I did was bite my tongue. "Shit," I swore.

"What's wrong?" he asked, pushing Hugo over as he sat down in between us. I could hear Hugo's sputters of disapproval and I could feel Dom and Ben watching me. It was crunch time.

"Nothing," I murmured. "Just never realized how hot you were." Whew. Okay, so flirting was a little hard, but nothing I couldn't manage. I wasn't the brightest witch of my age for nothing.

He flashed a dazzling smile at me and my heart nearly melted. He actually_ was_ good looking, I wasn't going to deny that. "I never realized how hot _you_ were, baby." He leaned in so that his lips grazed my ear. "Want to get out of here? We can continue this discussion in a more private place."

My heart pumped wildly and glanced at Hugo who was staring at me with wide eyes. I squeezed my eyes shut and kissed Tom on the neck softly before pulling back. "I just got to breakfast, I think I might like to eat first."

He winked. "How about you meet me in The Three Broomsticks later? I know a spot."

I nodded, breathless. "Uh, okay. Bye, Tom!" I called, waving as he walked off. As soon as he was gone Hugo began sputtering nonsense again, waving his hands. "For fuck's sake, Hugo. Spit it out."

"You... First of all, what in hell do you have on? And what the fuck was that with Snark? You- you don't pull that stuff! This is _school_, not a brothel! What if you get caught? I mean, what would Mum say? Or, better yet, what would Dad say?"

I snatched an apple from the buffet in front of me and stood up. "Frankly, Hugo, I don't give a shit." What a little fuck. I was pissed off and fed up and I as I began my diva exit I heard an exasperated huff, one that was all too familiar. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Dom staring daggers at me as Ben watched me. I winked at her, sticking my tongue through my teeth a little bit and swayed my hips just a bit more as I stamped over to the Slytherin table.

When I plopped down in between Al and Scorpius, Al had nearly the same reaction Hugo did, sputtering and gesturing at my outfit, although he calmed down much sooner. "Calm down, mate," Scorpius muttered. "She's only dressed like a skank to upset arse and arsette over there."

Al crossed his arms. "Why do you know about this when I don't?"

Scorpius merely shrugged as I pondered my life and what the fuck I was going to do when I met up with Snark. "She came to ask me about it early this morning. I gave her a few pointers."

Al snorted. "Sorry, are you two friends or something?"

"Al," I interrupted. "Shut the fuck up. I'm having a dilemma."

He raised a brow. "And what's that?"

I let my head fall, banging against the table. "I don't know how to be sexy," I muttered.

I could literally feel Scorpius roll his eyes at my back. "Just do what I told you. Jiggle your boobs a lot and laugh at everything he says, even if it makes you want to stab your eye out. When girls do that, guys know that they want it. It's like a code."

"Scorpius! Don't tell my cousin how to get laid!"

My head snapped up and I glowered at him. "Fuck, Al. I don't want to get laid! Malfoy already explained this to you, I'm just trying to be sexy to piss off Ben."

"That's all? You're just going to dress up like a slag?" he asked.

I flushed. "I, er, I'm sort of supposed to meet Tom Snark in Hogsmeade later."

"_Tom Snark_?" Scorpius cried. "What the hell are you doing with that prat?"

"You said to find a guy to flirt with!" I retorted. "Tom just happened to flirt with me first, I figured it made it a lot easier to go along with."

He sighed. "Do you have any idea what Tom Snark does to girls? He takes them to then nearest alley, pins them up against the wall, calls them pretty and shags them right there against that fucking wall. It's like his trademark. I don't want you going to meet him," he said, crossing his arms.

"Since when do you care what I do?" I asked, somewhat shitty that he felt the need to tell me what I could or couldn't do.

"Since you decided to have a shag with the school's biggest playboy in public," he responded coolly. "Although I suppose that I personally don't care either way, but you'd probably be better off not going."

I glowered at him. "Malfoy, I'd really appreciate if you could choose whether or not you like me. One minute your livid about me going off with Tom Snark, the next you're acting as if you're perfectly indifferent on the matter."

He set his jaw. "I've already chosen whether I like you or not, Weasley. You really are a know-it-all." He stood up, and swung his robes over his shoulders. "I'll see you in Hogsmeade, Albus. We still have that transfiguration essay." He turned and stomped away, running his hands through his hair as he did so.

"What the fuck got into him?" I cried.

Al shook his head, simply staring after Scorpius with this weird look on his face. "Hm."

"Hello-o? Earth to Al? I'm apparently on my way to be shagged in a couple hours and Scorpius just had some sort of episode and all you can say is hm?"

He tore his eyes from Scorpius' retreating figure and met mine. "Sorry?"

"You're ridiculous," I pouted.

"Oh, shut up, Rosie. You love me."

I sighed, grinning at him. "I know."

...

I was pinned up against an alley wall behind some shady pub and Tom was whispering in my ear just how pretty I was, exactly as Scorpius had promised. My leg was wrapped against Tom and his hand was down there, rubbing me as he kissed and nipped at my neck, occasionally whispering compliments against my neck.

For example, "You're so wet, Rose. Fuck you're hot." I grimaced, looking past his shoulder to the wall behind him. I wouldn't mind this so much, in fact I'd probably be enjoying it, if I wasn't so worried about Scorpius. Tom's lips came crashing back onto mine and his tongue slipped into my mouth, quite suddenly, and began rubbing on mine in this really weird fashion. I heard the zip of pants and the ripping of plastic and I nearly had a heart attack. I pushed Tom back and stared at him, incredulous.

"What the fuck, Tom? Were you just going to pop that on then and not tell me? And where the fuck do you even get a condom here?"

"For one," he muttered, "I bring them with me. And two, didn't you know what you were getting into when you came back here with me? Baby,_ this very spot_ is where the magic happens. And you happen to be my lovely assistant today." I wanted to puke. He was such a fucker. He pushed me back up against the wall and pressed himself against me. Merlin fuck he was hard. He kissed my neck. "You ready, Rosie?" he whispered huskily.

I sighed. Might as well, right? "Fuck, it" I mumbled against his lips as I caught them in mine.

He grinned against my mouth and rubbed saliva on my cheeks, which was gross, and I slipped my hands down his chest to help him pull off his belt. After nearly eight months of doing the same thing with Ben, I must say I got pretty good at removing belts without looking. He helped me pull off my underwear, which was an embarrassing piece of cloth, decorated with fucking horses, down to my ankles which I then proceeded to kick off. He slipped that stupid piece of rubber on and then, _oh fuck_, was he good. I was panting merely two minutes in and I wasn't even doing any work. He slipped in and out of me, slowly building speed and intensity. I moaned shamelessly against his neck, my fingers digging into his shoulder and twisting into his shirt. Pity he didn't think to remove that, I'm sure his muscles would be to die for.

Not compared to Malfoy's of course.

And that's when the vomit came, rising out of my throat. I pushed Tom out of the way and hunched over, releasing my breakfast and that bit of granola Hagrid had fed me. "Jesus, what the fuck, Weasley?"

"I'm sorry," I replied. "Shit. I must've eaten something bad at breakfast." I glanced at him, and to my relief, none of my barf got on him.

"Yeah, no kidding. He ripped the condom off of himself and flung it at the wall before lifting his trousers up and buttoning them. He bent down and grabbed my underwear, which were bundled next to his feet, to shove into his pocket.

"Woah, what the hell are you doing?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I have to get _something_ out of this," he muttered as he buckled his belt.

I buttoned my blouse quickly and fixed my skirt, rolling it all the way down so that it was nearly at my knees again. "I'm not letting you take my underwear, Snark."

He shrugged again. That damn bastard and his incessant shrugging. "Should've thought about that before you puked everywhere. I'll, er, I'll keep that bit between us. If you let me keep the underwear, of course."

I rolled my eyes, slumping back against the wall. I was going to destroy him in the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw quidditch match. "Take the damn thing."

He leaned over and kissed me again, a small peck. "Wait about five minutes before leaving," he whispered. I watched him as he went, his hand in his pocket fisted around my underwear. I took a deep breath. I don't know what the hell I just did or what I just got myself into, all I knew was that things were going to be quite different around Hogwarts for me.

...

As time progressed, I began to hear various catcalls and whistles as I walked to classes, much to my surprise. People would call out my name and ask to owl me but whenever I turned all I could see were clusters of boys laughing and watching me and girls sneering and whispering about me. I rolled my eyes. If they were going to behave in such a petty manner I decided I would, too. That's how I got my own trademarked spot, just like Tom Snark. But mine was the Gryffindor locker room. I never really shagged anyone else, we just made out and maybe I let them touch my breasts. Ben was definitely jealous and Dom went red every time I came around, _and_ people were finally seeing that I wasn't that perfect girl they had made up of me. It was an odd situation, but it wasn't necessarily a horrible one. I was still getting to make out with various sex gods and pissing off Ben and Dominique. It was honestly a win-win situation.

One particular day I was leaving the locker room when I heard shouts and grunting, as if someone was fighting out on the pitch. I ran over and saw Patrick Rine along with a few other of the Slytherin quidditch team members kicking a smaller boy. "Hey!" I shouted. "What the hell do you think-" Then I saw who the boy was, and I went absolutely livid. I nearly pounced on Rine, throwing him to the ground and punching him hard in the face. "What the fuck do you think you're doing picking on my brother, Rine? A fucking fifth year versus a group of seven years? That's a real fair fight, isn't it?"

He pushed me back so that I landed with a thud and punched me hard in the stomach. I groaned before pushing myself up and raising my fists again. "You seriously want to fight me?" he sneered.

I shrugged. "It's better than watching you beat up my brother, you dick."

"Fine then. We can go a few." He swung at my head which I dodged easily before kicking out with my foot and landing it hard in his abdomen. He grunted and clutched at his stomach before straightening, his face red. He swung at me again and made an attempt to grab my wrist, but I caught his and swung back, striking him hard in the face.

He grabbed his nose, which was now bleeding, and stumbled back. He gestured to his friends, who were simply standing idly by. "Let's go." I watched until I was sure he was gone and then dropped beside Hugo, who was holding the side of his stomach with one hand and covering his busted lip with the other. He had a black-eye, too.

"Oh, Hu," I whispered, smoothing out his hair. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "They just wanted to scare me before the game, I think."

I grabbed his arm and helped him to stand. "Let's get you to Madam Pomfrey's, okay? Get you patched up before the game tomorrow."

"What? I don't need my sister to walk me to the nurse-"

I laughed. "Hugo, if I don't walk you you know damn well that you won't go. So I'm taking you, let's go." I guided him along despite his grumbling and we walked in silence for a few moments.

"Why were you at the pitches anyway?" he asked.

Heat rushed to my face. "Er, I was meeting someone."

He sighed. "So the rumors... are they true? About you shagging in the locker room?"

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Not exactly. I'm not shagging anyone."

"Oh, well that's good," he mumbled.

"Why were _you_ there?"

"I was working on a particular move Aunt Ginny taught me. Rine came in then, saying how he had reserved the pitch for Slytherin even though half of his team wasn't even there. I landed and told him to shove off and then they all attacked me."

My hands were shaking out of anger at that point. "Merlin, Hugo. That bastard! Fifty points from Slytherin. Per person! I-"

"Why are you docking my house points, Weasley?" Hugo and I turned and saw Al and Scorpius walking up to us. When Al saw Hugo his normally calm demeanor turned frantic in seconds. He ran over to Hugo and cupped his cheek, his fingers brushing his bruised eye and his lip.

"What the hell happened?" he cried.

"Rine happened," I muttered. "And about four other members of your shitfaced team."

Scorpius groaned. "I'm sorry, Hugo. I'll talk to them-"

Hugo snorted. "No need, Rose already beat the shit out of Rine."

"Hugo!" I hissed. "That's not true-"

"Oh c'mon, I bet it is," Al interrupted. "I mean, you've been able to beat all of us up since we were nine. I imagine you were quite angry at Rine and weren't thinking rationally when you saw Hugo beaten up so you snapped and beat the hell out of him. Am I right?"

Hugo was nodding. "She gave him a bloody nose. Probably broke it."

I rolled my eyes, trying to cover my embarrassment when I caught Scorpius' look. He was looking at me oddly and his head was cocked a little to the side. Merlin, he looked cute. Al was saying something about taking Hugo to the nurse, like I hadn't already thought of that, and Scorpius said some snide remark of taking me, too, because I looked like I was in shock.

I glared at him when he said that but then I didn't think he had meant for it to be snide, because when I saw his face he looked genuinely concerned. "Maybe I can just take Weasley back to the suite."

"No, I told Hugo I would take him-"

"Rose. Go with Scorp, I can manage Hugo," Al said, his face a mask of concern. "You really do look awful." I was almost offended by that and was about to shout something in response but then Scorpius' arm was around my waist and he was leading me off, and I suddenly found myself handicapped with an inability to speak. My heart was pounding so loud in my ears that it was a wonder he didn't hear it, too. I simply stared at him as he pulled me along, admiring his features. He had a very slender, pale face. His eyes were gray, but it was weird because they were an endearing shade of gray. His light blonde hair was casually swept to the side and he had a little bit of stubble on his chin. I could feel the muscle in his arm twitch around me instinctively when we passed a group of boys.

"Malfoy!" one of them shouted, "You're going in the wrong direction! The pitch is that way!" Their laughter echoed down the hall for an unnecessarily long time considering that their joke wasn't even funny. Malfoy's jaw clenched beside me and I could tell he was angry that they said that. For some reason, I felt a strong desire to kiss his cheek and whisper for him not to be angry.

We reached the suite and Malfoy slammed the door shut behind him. "You okay?" I asked, even though I knew he wasn't.

He snorted. "I'm tired of hearing people talk about you like they do, Weasley. And then when I tell them to shut up they have the gall to imply that we're sleeping together, as well."

"You defend me?" I asked, incredulous. And I truly was. I know Malfoy and I were friends, but I never thought that he'd defend me.

"Of course I did, Weasley. I- I think you need to end this slut sham. It's no good for anyone, and Ben's certainly gotten the message. But that- that arse Tom Snark won't stop talking about all of the things you two do-"

"Snark? We haven't done anything since Halloween!"

He scoffed. "Well he's certainly saying something else. And thanks to your new image, everyone believes him."

I slumped down on to the couch, my head in my hands. "I didn't want it to go this far," I muttered. "I just wanted to piss Ben off. Now I really am a slag. I mean, sure, it's kind of fun, but still. I guess I'm pretty tired of listening to everyone whisper about me, too."

He sat next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, much to my surprise. "Look, Rose. Just stop doing it, start wearing your uniform how you used to again and-"

"No way," I said, pulling away from him. "No way am I going back to Golden Girl Weasley."

"That's not what I'm saying!" he insisted. "Just stop being a slag."

I fell back against the cushion of the couch and swore loudly. "I hate them."

"Who?"

"The student body of this fucking school. Why can't they just keep shit to themselves?"

He shrugged beside me. "I don't know. They've been like that since we were first years."

"Why do you hate walking alone?" I asked. It was an out-of-the-blue question, and I don't know why I asked it. I just sort of did.

"What do you mean?" he asked coldly.

"I- I don't know. You're just always walking with someone. And I know it's not because you're sociable, because you hate everyone. So why can't you just walk alone?"

He rolled his eyes. "You're over thinking it, Weasley."

"No, I'm not. Just tell me!"

"Why does it matter?"

"Because it does, okay? But never mind I guess, you obviously don't want to talk about it." I stood up and began to stomp off to my room when his voice stopped my dead in my tracks.

"I'm scared," he said hesitantly. I turned slowly and saw him looking at the ground, his fingers twisted in the hem of his shirt.

"Why?" He glared at me, trying so damn hard to look annoyed, but I could see that he was really just terrified. I moved to sit beside him and grabbed his hand. "Why?" I prompted again, this time softly.

He sighed. "When I was a first year, a bunch of Gryffindor guys would always follow me and say stupid things about my father, calling him a dirty pure blood and no-good death eater. Granted, both had been true at one point, but I wasn't even born yet. I had no idea why they were telling me those things, but they did. And they didn't stop. The entire year I was friendless and pursued by those idiots and one day when I was down in the dungeons, alone, they came up to me. This time they said that I probably wasn't even my dads real son, that I was just some part of Voldemort he had salvaged and stuffed into a corpse. I was scared and I was crying and all they did was laugh. And then they decided to attack me. They beat me bloody, and I think if your cousin's Albus and James hadn't shouted them off they might've killed me. They helped me up and James even carried me to the nurse. I- I haven't been able to walk alone since then-"

I cut him off by smashing my lips against his, grabbing his collar and pulling him to me. I don't know why I did it, but Merlin did it feel right. I could tell he was annoyed at first, which was slightly amusing, as his hands swatted at mine before tentatively coming to rest on my shoulders. Then they wandered down to my waist, pulling me closer. It was a soft, slow kiss.

When the initial excitement of finally kissing him wore off, which I wasn't exactly sure why it was so exciting in the first place, I realized that I was, in fact, kissing Scorpius Malfoy and that it was almost romantic, which caused me to jerk back.

He was looking at me sort of dazed before he ran a hand through his hair. "What the hell was that, Weasley?"

"I don't know," I whispered. "I just- I thought-"

"No you didn't," he interrupted, laughing bitterly. "You don't think." He stood up and walked away and I winced when I heard the slam of his door. A sob escaped my lips, and then more followed, to the point where I was sobbing and hiccuping. I flung myself face down on the couch and hugged a pillow tightly against myself as I sobbed. I don't know why the hell I was sobbing, although it might have been a combined effort by the fact that everyone went from loving and respecting me to hating me and calling me a slut, the fact that Snark still had my damn underwear and the fact that Hugo had been beaten up and then I beat the shit out of Rine. But I think most of all it was the fact that I had kissed Scorpius Malfoy and that it had felt _right, but also so wrong._ I couldn't help but wonder what my dad would say if he knew, or what my cousins would think. My chest hurt and it only got worse the more I thought about it.

Then a gentle hand was on my back, stroking the ends of my hair. I glanced up and saw Scorpius sitting beside me, his expression annoyed. "What are you doing?" I asked.

He shot a glance at me then sighed. "I- I wanted to comfort you," he admitted. "I didn't like hearing you cry."

"Sorry," I replied. "I know it annoys you-"

"No," he interrupted. "It's not because it annoyed me. I just- didn't like it."

"Oh," I whispered. "Scorpius, I'm sorry I kissed you."

"Sorry I made you cry."

"It wasn't just you," I said, smiling sadly.

"That's somewhat of a relief." I bit my lip and then pulled Scorpius down beside me, so that he was laying flat on his back. "Hey! Weasley, what the hell are-"

I kissed his cheek softly and wrapped my arm around his stomach, placing my head on his chest. "Don't worry about it."

I think that might have been the moment that I fell in love with Scorpius Malfoy, despite my constant denial of the fact.

...

The next afternoon I was sitting in charms class, attempting to listen to what Professor Geeter was saying, which was surprisingly difficult due to the fact that Rine had decided to sit behind me and whisper vulgar things about me. I turned around. "Can you please shut up?" I hissed. "I'm trying to pay attention to the lesson."

"Whatever you say, slut," he responded. He turned to his friend, an ugly brute and whispered, "Rumor has it she let Snark suck her tit before the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match. Disgusting."

I rolled my eyes and turned around, gripping my quill tightly as he kept going on. "Did you know her and Malfoy shag every night in their suite? Also, I think I heard somewhere that Malfoy and that fag Albus Potter have a thing, too."

I whipped my head around. "You shut your mouth about Scorpius and Al. They have nothing to do with you."

He snorted. "Defending your queer lovers, are you Weasley?" I set my jaw and grabbed my book and shoved into my bag. I stood up and pushed my chair in and began walking down the aisle of the classroom.

"Ms. Weasley?" the professor called. "What are you doing?"

"I can't sit in this classroom with Rine anymore, Sir. Unless you plan on kicking him out, I'm leaving."

"Ms. Weasley, you realize that if you walk out I will have to give you a detention? That will be-"

"My first ever, yes. I'm aware, sir."

He looked at me quizzically before pointing to Rine. "Rine, please go see Headmistress McGonagall."

I raised my eyebrows and my mouth fell open. Rine spluttered in dismay and the rest of the class snickered. "What- she's the one who interrupted class!"

"No, she's the one who get fed up with your interrupting class. I have been listening to you say vulgar things about her the entire period, but I assumed she could be left to handle it. The fact that Ms. Weasley was willing to risk her first detention to get away from you proves to me that you are the problem here. So I will not ask again, Mr. Rine."

He gathered his things in a huff, grumbling angrily under his breath. As he walked past me, he slammed his shoulder into mine and whispered, "Slag," under his breath. I rolled my eyes at muttered about how immature he was before flashing a grin at the professor, who asked me to please sit down. I did so gladly, my chin raised regally. I glanced around the class, as if daring another student to try something with a small and confident smirk dancing on my lips. Maybe it wasn't so bad, having everyone fear me. They may not respect me like they used to, but at least most people were starting to quit teasing me in the halls. After word got around about me beating up Rine, the instances came to almost a stand-still.

...

Time passed, and things sort of went back to normal. I had stopped making out with guys in the locker room, to Hugo, Al and Scorpius' relief, and I had started talking to some of my old friends again. Ben and Dominique were still together, which was annoying, but for the most part I was over them. Of course it still hurt like crazy, but I knew that it would end eventually and that I was coming out on top.

It was now nearing the end of November and it was finally time for the Gryffindor-Slytherin match. Hugo had given an impressive pep-talk and we were taking our positions on the pitch. I flew around the goals a few times, performing a few crowd-pleasing flips. Even if the half of the school still hated me, at least they had the decency to cheer me on during quidditch. Who knew? Maybe if we beat Slytherin, who had an undefeated record, my housemates would warm up to me completely.

I glanced over at the Slytherin team, who was flying into the pitch now, and grinned at him. He grinned back before pointing to me and then the ground. _You're going down, Weasley_. I shook my head and winked at Al, who looked incredibly pissed off and nervous and was staring at Hugo with concern.

Before I could think about it too much, the whistle blew, and the game began. Within the first ten minutes, Gryffindor had scored twice, and I had successfully blocked four shots. I would give it to them, Slytherin _was _tough this year.

But I was better.

I poised myself to be ready for a shot as a Slytherin chaser tore towards me, the quaffle in his hand when a bludger came flying at me from the side. I had to jerk left to avoid being hit, resulting in a score for Slytherin.

I heard Hugo yelling something to our beaters about the fact that that goal was on them and not me, which I appreciated. The game kept going and this time one of our beaters was sure to stay relatively near me in case another stray bludger made a path towards me.

Despite the cold, I could feel the sweat on my brow and before I knew it, Al was flying towards me, his hand raised as he readied himself to throw the quaffle. I saw him go left and I knew exactly what he was doing: it was Aunt Ginny's favorite move. When he went left, I feigned right at the same time he tried to turn behind me. He glared at me before trying to throw the quaffle up and over me, but I flew up and knocked it away with my elbow. "Nice try, Al!" I taunted. He rolled his eyes at me and I saw his eyes widen for a second and before I could ask, I was hit in the side rather hard by a quaffle and felt, as well as heard, a crack in my ribs. I screamed as I felt my broom go out from under me and I fumbled for the stick.

I heard a chorus of gasps from the crowd as I struggled to keep my grip. A few people were shouting for someone to help me, but I knew the rules of quidditch firmly state that another player couldn't help me unless I was falling. And at the moment, I wasn't, although my side was throbbing and I was fairly certain I had just broken a rib.

Another cry was heard and I glanced over and saw Hugo falling from his broom on a fast descent to the ground. I heard cackling and looked over to where Rine and a few of the idiots who had been beating Hugo laughing wildly.

"Al!" I screamed. "Go get him!" He nodded and was zooming towards Hugo, who was now _so, so _close to the ground that I couldn't help the blood curdling scream that retched itself from my throat because Al wasn't nearly close enough to catch him in time.

Suddenly, another player swooped below him and then Hugo was laying awkwardly over another broom and the crowd was cheering. I laughed loudly, whooping as Hugo and his savior landed. They were too far down for me to be able to specify who had caught him, but considering that five of the seven players were horrible, and since Albus was right in front of me, it could be reasonably inferred that Scorpius, darling, amazing, wonderful Scorpius, had saved Albus from a more serious injury.

Al flew over to me after the whistle was blown and helped me back onto my broom, the two of us flying rapidly down to the gathering crowd of students. Hugo was on his knees, clutching his stomach and puking up the remnants of his breakfast that morning and Al shouted for the students to back away. I knelt beside Hugo, holding my own rib and kissed his cheek.

"Are you okay?" I asked seriously.

He nodded, wiping his mouth and grimacing. "Other than the gross taste in my mouth, yeah. You?"

"I think I may have a broken rib. I don't care though, I'm just glad you're safe," I gushed, hugging him tightly. A chorus of "awe's" echoed throughout the crowd and I knew Hugo was blushing and I probably was, too, but nothing else mattered.

"Students!" a shrill voice barked. The crowd parted like the Red Sea and McGonagall, as well as Madam Pomfrey, pushed through. "Are you alright, Mr. and Ms. Weasley?"

I nodded, breathless. "Yes." My eyes darkened considerably and I stood, glancing around for Rine. "But Rine won't be."

McGonagall shook her head, looking incredulous. "What are you talking about?"

Al shifted beside me. "Rine had this plan, that- that if Gryffindor was ahead then we would take out Hugo and Rose. I wasn't directly informed, for obvious reasons, but I heard a few other guys talking about it."

"Mr. Rine!" McGonagall shouted. He came forward, rolling his eyes and his arms crossed. "Is this true?"

"Of course not," he sneered. "Potter's making things up."

"No, it's true," another voice called. Scorpius stepped forward and glowered at Rine. "It was his back-up plan in case we were losing. Plus probably payback for Rose breaking his nose and getting him kicked out of class."

McGonagall's mouth was set into a hard line. "I have no choice but to disqualify Slytherin from the house cup this year, then." I glanced at Scorpius, whose eyes were downcast. I sighed.

"Professor, with all due respect, that's not exactly fair to everyone else on the team," I said, looking directly at Scorpius. "Just disqualify Rine, it was his idea anyway."

He snorted. "Yeah? Tell me, Weasley. How do you think they're going to get on without a captain?"

McGonagall cleared her throat. "Easy, Mr. Potter will take over the role of captain."

Al blanched. "What?! Professor, have Scorpius do it or something-"

"Scorpius is already head boy, Mr. Potter. You will do fine as captain, and that is that. My mind's made up. Now the rest of you, clear out. We'll reschedule this match for another day. Mr. and Ms. Weasley, the two of you report to the clinic immediately. Rine, with me." Good ol' McGonagall, always strictly business.

A few hours later, I sat in the hospital wing in a bed next to Hugo. Al, Lucy and Lily had come by to sit for a while, but the girls had to go work on a project. Now it was just Al, Hugo and I. For whatever reason, even though Hugo and I had insisted we were fine, Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep us over night to make sure we didn't have whiplash or a concussion or anything.

The door opened and Scorpius strolled in, grinning at me. "Guess what, Weasley?"

"Hm?"

"I walked here all on my own."

I laughed. "No you didn't."

"I did too! I needed to talk to Al about our potions project and I wanted to make sure you two were alright. So, I walked."

I smirked. "Look at you, Malfoy. All grown up."

He opened his mouth to say something when the doors flew open again, this time our parents came running in. I rolled my eyes as my mother kissed Hugo firmly on the forehead, fussing over him and kissing his face all over. Dad came to stand by my bed and took my head in between my hands. "Rosie," he murmured as he kissed my head. "Is my little girl alright?"

I sighed. "Fine, Dad."

"Who did this?"

Al cleared his throat. "Patrick Rine, the former captain of the Slytherin team."

"Former?" Mum asked.

"Well, originally McGonagall disqualified all of Slytherin, but then Rosie said that wasn't fair because it was really only Rine's fault, so then McGonagall disqualified him and made me captain."

"You're captain?" Dad asked, ruffling his hair. "Surprised they didn't make Malfoy captain. Thank goodness though, then I would've had to hear Draco drone on about that-"

I cleared my throat. "Daddy?" He turned to look at me and I gestured towards Scorpius. "I don't believe you've ever officially met Scorpius."

Scorpius, who was rigid at the moment with fear as he stared at Dad, who had opened his mouth to say something before Mum had rushed over and grabbed his hand. "No we have not! Hello Scorpius, my name's Hermione Weasley, I'm Rosie's mother."

He nodded, visibly relaxing. "I know, I've read your books."

I frowned. I didn't know he read Mum's books. In fact, I didn't even know he was into all of the boring politics mum writes about in the first place. I looked at Mum who had this pleased sort of expression on her face. "Do you really?"

He nodded. "Oh, yes. My father has them all, actually. He has a signed copy of Clothes and Freedom Go Hand-in-Hand. I have to say, that's my personal favorite."

Dad sputtered. "Wait, Malfoy reads about house elf justification?"

Scorpius tilted his head. "Why shouldn't he, Sir? My dad's always been an advocate of house-elf rights, since I can remember. He even persuaded his mother to free her elf and start paying her for her services."

Now Mum looked all confused and Dad was red in the face and he opened his mouth but she held up her hand. "Ronald, let's not be rude to Scorpius. He's a friend of Rose and Al's."

Hugo and I exchanged very shocked looks before Mum turned to me. "Also, young lady, what's this we hear about you fighting? And dressing inappropriately? And- and doing inappropriate things in locker rooms?"

I blanched and my eyes widened. That dick Rine told McGonagall about all of that, and in that moment I swear I could've killed him. "It's- er, it's sort of a long story," I muttered. I glanced at Dad who was staring at the floor and avoiding my gaze and his face was red. "Daddy?"

"I'm glad you're okay, Rosie, but I have no idea what's happening to you," he said.

"It wasn't her fault, Dad!" Hugo cried suddenly. "It was Ben Knightley and Dom's fault."

"Ben? As in her boyfriend Ben?" Dad asked, confused. "And what does Dominique have to do with anything?"

Al butted in this time. "Well, Dom-"

"Had nothing to do with it," I interrupted, shooting both Albus and Hugo glances. There was no point in drawing our parents into things, because that would just make Christmas, which was very close, exceedingly awkward. "Ben and I had a fight and broke up, and now he and Dom are dating, but that's it. I- I wanted to make him jealous so I started dressing like a slag. And then one day I walked in on some boys and Hugo fighting, and I jumped in to make it a fair fight. That's all the fighting was about."

Hugo, Al and Scorpius all stared at me with wide eyes. I could see how disappointed Albus was; I knew he had been itching to get Dominique in trouble for ages.

Mum huffed. "Rosie, why didn't you owl me? I could've helped-"

"No, mum. You would've taken control of the situation and owl McGonagall, demanding that I get something out of this unjust treatment. I handled it on my own."

"Not very bloody well!" Dad shouted. Hugo and Al's eyes widened even more as did mine. My dad never yelled at me.

Never.

Al cleared his throat and grabbed Scorpius's arm, ushering him out of the room whilst mumbling something about potions. Hugo looked at me with pity in his eyes but I could tell he was uncomfortable, too.

"Ronald," Mum began. "We shouldn't shout."

"No, maybe we should. Because I really want to know what the hell got into my daughter that she would begin shagging people in an alley in Hogsmeade?"

I gasped, as did Mum. "Daddy! It's- it's not like that."

"Then what is it like?"

"It was just a- a-"

"A rumor," Hugo spat. "People have been spreading horrible rumors about her all year. It's not fair for her to get in trouble by you."

I sighed guiltily. "No, that- that part was true."

Hugo and Dad both got disgusted looks on their faces, which were turning redder and redder by the second. Mum held up a hand at the both of them and then sat down on my bed. "Why would you do that, Rose?"

"Because I was tired of being Golden Girl Weasley!" I cried, tears forming in my eyes. "I was tired of everyone thinking I was perfect."

"So you resorted to sleeping with random boys, dressing like the way you have been and fighting?"

I shrugged. "Okay, I would like to point out that I slept with one boy, and I only got into one fight. So your previous statement isn't exactly justified-"

"Rose," Dad cut in, his voice curt.

I sighed and shrugged sheepishly. "I guess I didn't handle it well."

"No," she said, "you didn't. And I, for one, am very disappointed in you. However, I'm also sorry."

"Sorry?"

She nodded. "Your father and I have put so much pressure on you since you were a little girl, Rosie," she whispered. "We always expected you to behave, and you did so, without asking questions. We were fools for thinking that you would always be our little Rosie. We should've known that one day you were going to grow up, and we didn't help you prepare for that at all." She kissed my cheek and hugged me tightly. "Your father and I will need to be getting home soon, we're having guests for dinner. So you two heal up and get a lot of rest and we'll see you for Christmas, alright?"

My face scrunched up all ugly and I began to cry into my mother's shoulder, something I hadn't done since I was eight years old. "I love you, Mum." She kissed my head and rubbed my back.

"I love you, too, Rose."

I looked up at Dad who was still avoiding my gaze. "Daddy? I- I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"

He sighed. "I just don't know how to feel right now. I- We'll talk over Christmas." He patted Hugo's head softly before he left the infirmary, calling for my mother. She glanced at my apologetically and kissed Hugo goodbye as well before bustling out. As soon as they were gone, fresh tears spilled from my eyes and sobs racked my body. When Ben broke my heart, it hadn't felt anywhere near as horrible as this. Knowing that I had disappointed my parents made me feel more horrible than I ever had before.

"Rose?" Hugo called softly. "Don't be too upset. Dad's- well, dad's a nutter, you know that. He's just mad right now, and you know how us Weasley's get when we're mad. It'll blow over by Christmas."

I think I made him feel worse that my sobs only intensified when he said that.

...

I was sitting in the suite the next night, glumly. It was as if I had this hole in my chest that nothing could fill—not flying around the pitch or practicing, not even hanging out with Al. The door to the suite opened and Malfoy stalked in, stopping in the door when he saw me. "Hey, Rose."

I nodded politely at him. "Malfoy."

"I noticed you changed your look." I glanced down at myself. My skirt was back down to where it should be, and my blouse was buttoned all the way and my tie was in a tight knot at my neck.

I shrugged. "I suppose."

He sighed, frustrated, and sat beside me. He took his hands in mine. "Rose, are you okay?"

I nodded, annoyed. "Why wouldn't I be, Malfoy?"

He swore under his breath before pressing his lips against mine. Honestly, what the fuck was that? I almost pushed him away, until I felt that stupid pang in my chest dull a little bit. This time it was my turn to swear as I cupped his cheeks and leaned back, deepening the kiss and pulling him on top of me. He kissed me hard and before I knew it, his tongue was prodding my mouth, his teeth clashing against mine. My hands fumbled with his tie and I eventually loosened it and pulled it off his neck. He stood up suddenly, and I stared at him, confused and very close to saying something rude, when he stooped down and swept me into his arms, kissing me again. He walked to his bedroom, somehow still kissing me, and then I was dropped carefully onto his bed, and he was over me again.

His mouth roamed, kissing a path down from my mouth to my neck, where he kissed and nipped for a few moments. A soft whimper escaped my lips, it was truly embarrassing, and he growled in response, catching my lips with his. His hands slipped up to my neck and began to unfasten my tie, soon followed by the buttons on my blouse. Then we were both shirtless.

It was almost funny, because similar situations are what had me so down in the first place, and here I was, making out with someone again. Only this time, I didn't feel an ounce of guilt. His hands began to knead my breasts through my bra and I sat up a little so that he could reach behind me and unclasp it. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me onto his lap, kissing me passionately. His mouth moved down to my tit and he latched his lips around my nipple, causing me to hiss and arch back. My fingers moved to his hair and I pulled him back up to my mouth. He pulled away after a few moments and undid his belt, sliding his jeans off. I giggled at his stupid dragon boxers and he rolled his eyes at me before moving to my feet and sliding my socks off, then following with my skirt. He raised an eyebrow at my panties, which were decorated with little books before I swatted at him.

"You're ridiculous, Malfoy," I muttered against his lips.

"Your panties have books on them," he murmured huskily. He moved his hand down to my panties and slipped it under the waist band, his deft fingers finding my bud and stroking it slowly. I made an estranged noise, something in between a moan and a whimper and he chuckled.

Soon, we were both naked and Malfoy was poised above me. He looked nervous and frightened and I couldn't help but laugh. "What's your problem? You fuck girls all the time."

"I- I don't know. I like you, I guess."

I laughed even louder then. "Well, that's a good thing I suppose. Prat."

...

I woke up the next morning to his lips pressed against my shoulder. "Wake up, Rose," he mumbled against me.

I turned and grinned at him. "Good morning, Malfoy."

"Merlin, Rose. We just shagged, call me Scorpius."

I rolled my eyes. "Morning, _Scorpius_."

He nodded. "That's better." He kissed me softly on the lips. "What does this mean?" he asked after a few moments.

I shrugged. "Two friends that enjoy shagging?"

"No way, Rose. You and I both know that this is more."

I frowned. "Scorpius- I- What about our families?"

"I don't think Al would mind," he murmured as he kissed me again.

"I know _he_ wouldn't, but what about my dad? Your dad?"

"Fuck our dads."

I laughed and kissed him back. "I really do respect my dad, and I know you respect yours, too."

He sighed and rolled onto his back. "I know."

"So, what do you want to do?" I asked, placing my chin on his chest. He looked down at me and I got butterflies in my stomach when he smirked.

"You." I scoffed and rolled my eyes. The smirk melted and his eyes softened. "I want to be with you, Rose. I want to be more than just friends, and I want to be more than just your shag-mate."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, Rose Weasley, will you be my girlfriend?" I scoffed and rolled off of him. "What?" he demanded.

"You can't ask me to be your girlfriend while I'm naked and in your bedroom the morning after! You'll have to take me on some sort of date first."

"Rose- Are- are you being serious?"

"Of course I am, Scorpius. Since when do I joke?" I stuck my tongue out at him and picked up my clothes. "I'm going to get shower and get ready for our date."

"Yeah?" he challenged. "What's that?"

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend," I responded. "You're taking me to dinner. Bring money, because the boy always pays."

"Rose, come on. Why do we have to?"

I pursed my lips and crossed my arms. "Because I like you a lot, bastard. And I want to date you. But I'll be damned if we make it official like this."

He groaned and rubbed his eyes wearily. "Sure, sure. I'm going to take a shower."

I moved in front of him. "No way, you always use all of the hot water. I'm going first."

He smirked. "You know, now that I think about it, we don't really have time for both of us to shower."

"Oh? And what do you have in mind?" I murmur, raising a brow.

He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a kiss. "We'll just have to conserve water and time by showering together, darling."

I laughed as he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me up, carrying me towards the bathroom. "So thoughtful," I mumbled as he reached up to kiss me. He set me down and went to turn the dials, water rushing out of the spout.

He looked at me over his shoulder and winked. "Thoughtful is my middle name, babe."

"Really? Because Albus told me it was Hyperion."

He frowned and grabbed my hands. "Yeah? Well that was classified information," he said, kissing me as he pulled me into the bath. If anything could compare to fucking Scorpius, it was fucking him in a bath. Merlin.

After we had finished up in the bathroom and recollected ourselves, we began the trek to Hogsmeade, my arm linked in his. I could tell he was still annoyed by that fact that I had forced him to take me on a "stupid and unnecessary outing" as he so kindly referred to it, but I was two hundred percent determined to have a fun time.

I'm sure that you can imagine by absolute distaste then when a group of student ran by, nearly knocking us over. "Hey! Where are you lot going?"

A third year Hufflepuff turned and grinned excitedly. "The quidditch pitch! Ben Knightley is about to fight Tom Snark!"

Scorpius and I swore aloud and began to jog down to the pitch, greeted by a sizable crowd and Ben and Tom facing off, their wands pointed directly at the other's throat. Ben already had a bruise on his forehead and Tom's nose was bleeding freely.

"Oh, Merlin, come on," I muttered as I shouldered my way through the crowd. As much as I hated both of them and would love to see them kill each other, I was still (unfortunately) head girl. Scorpius began dispersing the crowd while I plucked the boys' wands from their hands and shoved them away from one another. "Twenty points from each of your houses and detention tomorrow morning. I'll let you know where later, bastards."

Ben threw his arms up. "What the fuck, Rose? We have practice tomorrow. We play Slytherin next weekend!"

"Looks like you won't be attending. Try not to be such a dick next time and you won't have to miss practice."

Tom crossed his arms. "I don't see why I'm being punished; Knightley's the one who started this. Fucking bastard attacked me on my way to Hogsmeade!"

"Why?" I asked, glaring at Ben.

"I was tired of hearing all of the shit he was saying about you, okay? He was lying and spreading rumors about you and it was disgusting and really starting to piss me off."

I frowned and crossed my arms. "Wait, you were _defending_ me?"

"Yeah, okay? I was."

"Well, that's rich. Weren't you the one spreading stuff about me after we broke up?"

"Yeah, well that was different. I mean, we actually did that."

I crossed my arms. "Who's to say Tom and I didn't do what he was saying?"

Ben glowered at me. "Stop doing this, Rose. I- you have no right to act like you are!"

I'm still not over that comment, like was he fucking kidding me? "Hey, bitch. _You _cheated on _me_! Remember?"

He rolled his eyes. "It wasn't even my fault. It was your slag cousin. She would shut up about how she wanted to make you a little jealous. She was a desperate slut."

My face burned. How dare he talk about Dom that way? Sure, she sucked ass, and I sort of hated her, but she was still my cousin. "Don't talk about her like that!" I hissed.

"Rose, you called her a prostitute at one point. Don't be a hypocrite."

"No, it's completely different from my standpoint. First of all, she ruined my relationship, and you helped her do it. You're both at fault, therefore really you calling her a slag is very much the pot calling the kettle black." He stared at me curiously before I threw my hands up, exasperated. "It's a muggle expression. Either way, you don't get to call her a slag. If you're going to call her anything, it'd better be about how pretty she is or how kind she is, because an ass like you is no where near deserving of her. So shove the fuck off, Knightley."

He stared at me, kind of dumbfounded before walking past me, snatching his wand from my hand and then slamming into my shoulder with his, hard. I winced and Scorpius was shouting at him and giving him another detention. I glanced at Tom who was sort of shuffling his feet awkwardly and I sighed. "I'll take your detention back. But seriously, stop spreading shit about me," I said as I handed him his wand back.

He nodded and stepped towards me, gingerly taking the wand from my grasp. He leaned forward so that his lips grazed my ear, making me grimace. "I've got your panties if you want them."

I stepped back, scrunching up my nose and shaking my head. "Maybe you could just throw those away, yeah?" He shrugged and walked past me, patting Scorpius on the back as he did so, which caused a very annoyed expression to cross Scorpius' face for a moment before he over glanced at me, and then he smiled. For some stupid reason, it made my heart stop and my breath hitch (which is something I will deny if ever asked about).

"Rosie?"

I turned and saw Dom standing in front of me, her eyes wide and filled with tears. "Yeah?"

"Did you- did you mean all of that? Or were you just trying to make Ben angry?"

"Yes, I meant it. Don't get me wrong, you're still a slag for what you did and all but-" And then her arms were encircling my neck and I couldn't breathe, which was typical Weasley behavior, unfortunately.

"Thank you so much, Rosie! I've missed you so much and I couldn't do anything about it because you hated me! I- you're my best friend and I just want things to go back to normal!" I grimaced as she sobbed on me and I patted her back awkwardly.

"Sure, Dom. Everything's okay, alright? Now why don't you go find Lucy or something and enjoy your day in Hogsmeade?" Merlin, she killed me.

She nodded and kissed my cheek. "Love you, Rosie!" she called as she pranced off, her hair swishing behind her.

I rolled my eyes as I turned to face Scorpius, who was watching with a bemused expression. "Something funny, Malfoy?" I asked as I began to walk down the Hogsmeade path. He caught my hand in his and fell into step beside me, lacing his fingers through mine.

"No," he mused. "You just amaze me."

"Okay," I said suddenly.

"What?"

"I'll be your girlfriend. Okay."

"Rose, that wasn't me asking-"

"I know, prat. Just accept it and move on."

...

A few more weeks passed, and they did so uneventfully to my utmost relief. We played our match against Slytherin and although it was an even game, Gryffindor came out on top. Thanks to a bet Scorpius and I had made before the game, I spent an hour in heaven that night after the match as Scorpius massaged every inch of me, grumbling all the way. Al and Lily were over the mood that Scorpius and I were dating, and even Hugo was pretty thrilled about it. Dominique was sort of back in my life and although her antics tended to annoy me at times, I have to admit it was nice having a female friend my own age around again.

It had been a whirlwind of a first term, and I still have trouble looking back and thinking about how all of that had occurred in just a few short months. Winter break was soon upon us and Scorpius and I were patrolling the train on the way to the station together. "So, what do you want to do about our families?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I suppose we'll have to tell them eventually, yeah?"

I nodded in response. "Yeah, we will."

He kissed my forehead gently and grabbed my hand. "Don't freak out, okay? Things will work out. Say, what do you think about sneaking out Christmas Eve? I could apparate over and we could go out for dinner."

I grinned at him. "Sure. Sounds fun." We finished our patrol and went back to our cabin, sitting together next to the window. Albus and Hugo were in the middle of a very animated discussion about how our match had been biased, and Lily was braiding Dominique's hair intricately. A few hours of messing around soon came to an end as the train rolled to a stop at the station and the students all rushed off to find their families.

Scorpius and I shared a quick kiss as we excited the train and then parted ways, off to find our respective families. Hugo, Albus, Dominique, Lily and I all went in search of the big Weasley clan we expected to find waiting for us, but we were instead greeted by Uncle George leaning casually against a wall. Lucy and Louis had apparently already located him and were standing by his side. "Look at you lot," he said, clucking his tongue. "Not one of you got a detention this semester."

Hugo snorted. "I think the era of reckless Weasley's was over when James and Fred graduated."

Uncle George nearly shook his head. "A shame. I blame head girl over here," he said, jerking a thumb in my direction.

I shrugged, smirking a little. "Oh, but I'm sure you heard about all the trouble I got myself into."

He shuddered. "You bet I did. A total of about fifty hours of it, actually. Your dad felt the need to call me or badger me about it constantly at the shop and rant on and on about it. I blame your dad, Albus, for being so damned busy."

I rolled my eyes. "Sometimes he astounds me."

"Hilarious, really, because he was always the most mundane of us all. Except maybe Percy," he added with a wink as he nudged Lucy playfully.

Uncle George ushered us all off the platform and into Grandpa Arthur's new car, the same model as the first. He drove us all the way to the burrow, the smell of supper wafting out of the open windows. When we got inside, we were greeted enthusiastically by our huge family. However, I only had one person in mind, who happened to be nowhere I checked.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Uncle Harry. "Rosie," he said, grinning. He wrapped me in a hug. "How are things?"

"They- they were rough for a while but I fixed it. Any idea where my dad is?"

Uncle Harry nodded. "Up in his old room." I thanked him and practically sprinted up the stairs and slamming into my father when he was exiting.

"Rosie?"

"Dad! I'm so so sorry for everything!" I cried, tears immediately coming to my eyes. I wish I could pinpoint the moment where I got so emotional. I buried my face into his chest and began to cry. "I missed you so much and I'm beyond sorry that I was so disappointing!"

He placed his hand under my chin and tilted my head back. "Rosie, baby, don't cry. I'm sorry too, I was unfair to you. I've always been unfair to you and Hugo, but both of you always accepted it with such grace that I never thought of it. But I love you so much, Rosie." He kissed the top of my head and wrapped his arms tightly around me.

I pulled back and smiled at him, wiping my eyes. I took a deep breath because there I go, about to inform Dad that I was dating his arch enemy's son. "Daddy- I-"

"Yes?" I looked up at him and saw that he had tears in his eyes, too. I sighed, my confidence slipping. There was actually no way that I could ruin our happy conciliation with news about Scorpius and I.

"I'm just really, really happy that we're okay."

...

Christmas Eve had arrived and I was dressed in a red dress, wearing black heels and my hair pulled back and out of my face. I was so excited that I could barely contain myself. A loud _pop_ informed me that my date had arrived and I turned, immediately wrapped in Scorpius's arms. "Evening, Rosie," he whispered against my hair.

"Hey," I whispered back, reaching on my tip toes to kiss him. "How do I look?" I stepped back and spun for him. He smiled at me and kissed my cheek.

"You look beautiful. Let's go before one of your thousands of family members wakes up." I nodded as he tucked me under his arm. I squeezed my eyes shut as we apparated, the familiar sickening feeling appearing. We landed outside of a nice restaurant in Diagon Alley and I smiled at him.

"This looks fancy."

"It is. This is wear my parents always go for dinner." He wrapped his arms around my waist and grinned. "I implore you to be on your best behavior."

I scoffed. "You're the one who can't keep your hands off of me."

"Where's the lie?" he murmured in response as his hands slid down my waist to cup my arse. I swatted at him and he chuckled, grabbing my hand and leading me inside the restaurant. The hostess was nice enough, seating us at a nice table near the window. "Order whatever you'd like."

I opened the menu and blanched. "Merlin, it's thirty galleons for a plate of noodles and a salad."

He looked up at me over his menu. "You said yourself it was fancy."

"Yes, but I didn't think that a meal for two would cost enough to feed a family of twelve at a normal restaurant.

He laughed softly. "Relax, Rose. Get the noodles if you want to; it's not a problem, okay?"

I sighed and did as he told, ordering the noodles as well as a glass of water as a waitress appeared. Soon enough, our food arrived and Merlin was it good. Scorpius glanced up at me as I ate the noodles and smiled. "Hey, I have a gift for you."

I slurped up a noodle and nodded. "I have one for you, too." I reached into my purse and pulled out two neatly wrapped presents. He opened the smaller of the two and smiled softly at the contents. It was a small snow-globe. Within it, there was a quidditch pitch and two brooms zooming around, one ridden by a blonde boy dressed in green and the other a girl with fiery red hair in scarlet. "It's us," I said softly. "Albus helped me make it, because he's much better at charms than I am. I know it's corny and all, but-" I was interrupted as Scorpius pressed his lips against mine.

"I love it Rose." He unwrapped the second, a signed copy of Mum's newest book about the lack of compassion for certain magical beasts.

"It hasn't actually been released to the public yet," I explained. "But I told her it was for someone special."

He grinned. "These are fantastic, Rose! Thanks," he added as he kissed me again. "Now your turn." He slid a box across the table at me and I slowly undid the ties around it. I lifted the lid off and gasped. A bright blue pendent surrounded by a circlet of small diamonds on a silver chain lay inside.

"Scorpius," I breathed.

"Do you like it?" he asked, slightly concerned. "I wasn't sure if it was exactly your style, but Albus said you might like it, and that it matched your eyes."

I shook my head and grinned at him. "It's beautiful, Scorp. Why don't you help me put it on?"

He nodded eagerly as he stood and walked around the table, brushing my hair aside as he slipped the necklace around my neck, clasping it. He walked back around the table and smiled. "Stunning."

Our meal concluded shortly thereafter and he took me back to the burrow, dropping me in my room. "Well, I suppose I'll be seeing you back at Hogwarts, then."

I nodded and hugged him tightly, kissing his neck gently. "Make sure you write, okay? A week is a long time."

"I will. Promise," he whispered. The same loud _pop_ sounded and I grinned happily, flopping down on my bed and turning over. I fell asleep quickly, not even bothering to change out of my dress.

Break went by in a blur after that. I spent a loud and crazy week with my family at the burrow, got pranked way too many times to count, got some really nice presents and my New Year's kiss—a muggle tradition mum and Uncle Harry introduced, much to grandpa Arthur's delight—was a kiss on the cheek from Al, just like it has been since we were four. Mum had noticed my necklace and had asked who it was from, and luckily Albus had saved me by saying that he had given it to me.

Soon enough, it was time to go back to Hogwarts, and for once I was actually very excited. Although I hadn't told my parents about Scorpius yet, I was still absolutely thrilled to see him at the station. Uncle Harry had work and Aunt Ginny fell ill the day before, so Mum and Dad agreed to take Lily and Al back with us. The car was absolutely packed and I fingered my pendent nervously. Albus smiled at me and placed a hand on mine. "Don't worry, Rosie. It's going to be okay."

We were walking on King's Cross and had just crossed Platform 9 ¾ when we bumped into the Malfoys. My eyes widened and I glanced as Scorpius, who look just as frightened as I did. I caught his eye and shook my head slightly and I saw him visibly relax and shake his head, too. I sighed and watched as our father's glared at each other.

Al cleared his throat. "Hi, Mr. Malfoy!"

Draco sniffed and looked at him. "Potter."

Scorpius scoffed. "Dad, can't you at least act decent? He is my friend you know." He glanced at me before continuing, "and maybe you could consider being decent to Mr. Weasley also because I'm sort of dating his daughter."

My cheeks burned and I heard our mothers gasp. Hugo and Al both had their heads in their hands and Lily was gripping my father's elbow. I shut my eyes and stepped forward grabbing Scorpius's hand.

"Daddy, like Scorpius said, we're dating now." I shot a very hard glare at Scorpius who just sort of smirked confidently. That jerk. "And I'd like it if you could at least try and be pleasant to the Malfoys."

In that moment, I was honestly scared that he would explode. His face was bright red and he was very, very angry. Mum cleared her throat and smiled warmly at Scorpius. "How nice! I'm very happy for the two of you, I couldn't have asked for a better boy for Rose. Right, Ronald?"

He didn't say anything, just continued to stare at my and Scorpius's hands. It was agonizing.

Scorpius's mother gave it a go then. "Draco, dear, Rose is very bright! It's so nice that Scorpius found himself such a nice girl, hmm?"

His face was stony and he regarded me coldly. He sort of bent his elbow and for a second I thought that he was going to grab his wand and kill me, and I think Scorpius felt something like that, too, because his arm twitched. Then Draco stuck his hand out in front of me. "Pleasure to meet you, Rose," he said stiffly.

I released the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and placed my hand in his. "Likewise, sir." Scorpius's mother gave relieved sort of sigh and put her hand on my shoulder as Mum gushed over Scorpius. The only one not saying anything was Dad.

"Daddy?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"You know how much I love you, right? And that I always have been a fairly decent judge of character?" He nodded. "Okay, so then you can trust me when I say that Scorpius is a really, really great person." He clenched his jaw and squared his shoulders before sticking his arm out in front of Scorpius. It was just as awkward as it had been for me with Mr. Malfoy. Scorpius reached up and grasped his hand and my dad just sort of tugged on his.

"Scorpius," he said, his face not nearly as red as it had been, "my Rosie is a very smart girl. And she generally makes good decisions, too. So, if she says you're a great guy..." he took a deep breath and his eyes met Mr. Malfoy's for a second, "then I'm sure you're exactly what she says. I'm glad that she's happy."

I grinned and wrapped my arms tightly around his waist. "Thank you daddy!"

The trains whistle blew and Draco cleared his throat. "Well, I think we should let our children get to their seats, Weas- Ron."

Mum's eyes widened when he said that and she nodded at Dad, who just sort of regarded Draco. "I guess we should, Draco."

I glanced over at Scorpius in shock, and I think he was having the sort of same thought process as I was. Did we, in fact, just sort of put an end to that stupid Weasley-Malfoy rivalry? (Of course we came to find in later years that although Scorpius and Dad would tolerate each other, there was a limit to how polite they could be to each other. That much was evident at our wedding, but that's a tale for another time, yeah?)

We hugged our parents goodbye and the five of us boarded the train; Albus, Hugo and Lily walking in the direction of our cabin as Scorpius and I went to attend to the boring head duties. I glanced over and raised my brow at him. "So. Something tells me you had that planned."

He smiled. "You look beautiful in that necklace, you know. Did anyone notice?"

"Yes, they did. Albus said it was from him. But you didn't answer my question."

He laughed, wrapping his arm around me. "Yeah, yeah. I planned it. Worked out much better than I thought it would."

I rolled my eyes. "You're ridiculous."

"I love you, Rose."

I stiffened a little and glanced at him, my eyes wide. "Sorry?"

He shrugged. "You heard me."

"You love me? Really?" I quirked my eyebrow. "Even if I'm Golden Girl Weasley?"

He scoffed. "I think we destroyed that persona ages ago. And to be honest, Rose, I like you better with your imperfections."

"And what would those be?" I asked, kissing him softly.

He grinned. "Well, for starters, you curse like a sailor," he murmured, kissing me. "Your snore." Another kiss. "You're very irrational at times." Another kiss.

I smiled and elbowed him playfully. "Hey, cut it out. You're no Prince Charming yourself."

He glanced at me curiously. "Is that a muggle reference?"

"Yeah. It's from Cinderella. Remind me to tell you it sometime."

Scorpius shrugged and kissed my cheek. "Sure. Let's go sit down before Albus comes looking for us."

I nodded as he grabbed my hand, leading me down the aisle. "Hey Scorpius?"

"Mm?"

"I love you, too."

...

_As you can clearly see, not one fucking thing went to plan that year. But that doesn't necessarily mean it went wrong. If things had gone to plan, instead of being the very pregnant and happy Mrs. Malfoy that I am today, I could be married to that shit Knightley. He went on to become a seeker for the Montrose Magpies, so good for him, I'd suppose. _

_Me? Well, I went on to intern at St. Mungo's like I had intended and am now a somewhat well-known and esteemed healer. Not to brag or anything, but I am pretty good. However, I'm currently stuck at home on maternity leave thanks to my being stuffed with two babies at the same fucking time. Scorpius and I already have a two year old daughter named Marie. The two inside me are boys and I swear I'll go ballistic if they're identical. We're calling them Henry and Brandon. _

_Scorpius works for the ministry in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He has to travel some, but it's not a big deal for the most part. He's only gone for a few night every couple of months. _

_I'd say overall that things really turned out in my favor. I sometimes like to think back on that year and think about what transpired. I find it ironic that despite my initial disdain for the badge that got me into this whole mess in the first place, me becoming head girl may have been the greatest thing to happen to me, because it led to all of this happening._

_Now, if you'd please excuse me, I really ought to get back to this potion. Albus' boyfriend charmed his shampoo to turn my poor cousin's hair green, and he's supposed to have a press conference later today and desperately needs this to fix things. Thanks for listening, and come back if you have any more questions about my husband. (Which I'm sure you all will at some point in the next year; word has it that the current minister of magic is close to stepping down and Scorpius is basically a shoe-in for the position!)_

**So I plan to eventually write a sequel to this, in which Scorpius actually goes for minister and the Malfoy babies are featured. Thanks so much for reading and once again, please drop a review! They're great to read. Have a good (insert time of day here)! **

**-Al**


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